Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he suspected Ukraine was preparing a new offensive against pro-Moscow separatists in east Ukraine following an upsurge in fighting.

• August 17, 2015

Poland's new President Andrzej Duda will visit Estonia next week to launch a campaign to push NATO to deploy more troops in the region, a senior source said on Monday, amid fears of mounting Russian assertiveness.

• August 17, 2015

An Iraqi parliamentary panel called on Sunday for former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and dozens of other top officials to stand trial over the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State last year.

• August 16, 2015

A Syrian government air strike northeast of Damascus killed at least 80 people in a marketplace on Sunday, rescue workers in the rebel-held area and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

• August 16, 2015

Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels on Monday of carrying out the heaviest artillery attacks on government positions in six months and warned of signs the conflict was escalating despite a ceasefire deal.

• August 10, 2015

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States should cooperate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to fight Islamic State and that this required an international coalition uniting all those for whom the jihadists are "a common enemy".

• August 9, 2015

The leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP urged the militant Kurdistan Workers Party on Saturday to "remove its finger from the trigger" and said the government should launch talks to halt a surge in violence.

• August 8, 2015

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday he had reached an agreement with his Russian counterpart on a draft U.N. resolution aimed at identifying the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

• August 6, 2015