KIEV, March 13 – OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) observers have visited Donetsk airport, which was captured by militants in January, and have reported that captives are being used to clear debris and to search and recover the bodies of deceased soldiers.

DONETSK, March 13 - The Zasiadko mine, where 34 miners were killed in an explosion last week, and Starobesheve thermal power plant (TPP) are becoming property of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

KIEV, March 13 – The Ukrainian Armed Forces as of March 12 received humanitarian aid worth $120 million from nine countries, according to a government report.

KIEV, March 16 - President Petro Poroshenko argued that a good climate is being created in Ukraine for rebuilding confidence in the country's banking system.

KIEV, March 16 - President Petro Poroshenko has submitted a bill amending Article 10 of the law on the special local self-government procedures in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to Parliament, which provides that these special procedures are implemented by local self-governance bodies elected in extraordinary elections.

DONETSK, March 16 - Heavy machinegun and light artillery fire pounded a district of Donetsk, the biggest city of eastern Ukraine, on Monday and pro-Russian rebels said there had been no lull in the fighting since a February ceasefire, Reuters reported.

WASHINGTON, March 16 - The United States said on Monday it would be ready to "increase the costs" to Russia if it fails to comply with the terms of ceasefire agreements with Ukraine, suggesting potential further economic sanctions on Moscow, Reuters reported.

MINSK, March 14 - Ukraine's possible secession from the CIS is the sovereign right of this country, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.

"Speaking of declarations of the possible secession of Ukraine from the CIS, this is definitely the sovereign right of each state. No one disputes it and no one is going to. But it is easy to slam the door shut in hot blood, especially as they seem to have a formal occasion: "You did not come to Kiev but we can do without you"," Belarusian First Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Mikhnevich said. His answer to a media question was published on the ministry website on Friday.

KIEV, March 16 - Ukraine's new leaders announced on Sunday a call-up to raise 20,000 men for a newly-created National Guard, accusing Russia of sending "touring" trouble-makers across the border to stir up separatism in the country, Reuters reported.

Keeping tension high as pro-Russian Crimean leaders staged a referendum for the peninsula to secede to Russia, pro-Western Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk pledged to bring to justice all those trying to destroy Ukrainian independence "under the cover of Russian troops.”

KIEV, March 16 - Ukraine has no intention of pulling its troops out of Crimea despite a rapid build-up of Russian troops in the region to a level of about 22,000 servicemen, the acting defense minister said in comments published on Sunday, Reuters reported.