KIEV, Jan. 15 - Top US and Russian officials met Friday in Russia's westernmost outpost to discuss the Ukraine crisis amid a fresh international drive to bolster a fragile truce in the east.

ASTANA, Jan. 15 - The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France are expected to meet in Astana in late January, the Kazakh presidential press service reported.

"The meeting is expected to take place in late January," the report says.

BRUSSELS, Jan. 15 – The crisis in Ukrainian-Russian relations threatens the security of Europe and the whole world, Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

KIEV, Jan. 16 – Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has announced an Ukrnafta stockholders meeting to change the company's management in response to criticism relating to allegations that his political faction, the People's Front, supports tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky's interests.

KIEV, Jan. 16 – Interpol has put eight former senior Ukrainian officials on its international wanted list, but Ukraine had filed requests for the issue of red notices for 22 ex-officials, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema said.

KIEV, Jan. 16 – With Russian arms being delivered to militants, and the concentration of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border, Europe could be on the verge of a “full-scale continental war,“ National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said.

WIESBADEN, Germany, Jan. 16 - Russia is working to develop within a few years the capability to threaten several neighbors at once on the scale of its present operation in Ukraine, a senior American general said.

KIEV, Jan. 18 - Ukraine's president vowed Sunday to reassert government control over eastern regions as the army unleashed a counter-offensive against Russian-backed separatist fighters vying for command over the airport in the city of Donetsk, AP reported.

KIEV, Jan. 17 – Prime Minister and Regions Party leader Mykola Azarov has expressed the hope that Martin Schulz, the newly elected president of the European Parliament, will support Ukraine's progress in obtaining membership in the European Union.

KIEV, Jan. 18 – The Cabinet of Ministers has authorized Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuri Boyko to sign an agreement with the Azerbaijani government on cooperation in organizing supplies of liquefied natural gas to Ukraine from Azerbaijan, Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Makukha said.