Corey Flintoff

Kharkiv has largely escaped the ravages of the war until recently. It has been hit by several terrorist bombings, including a blast at a Ukrainian national unity rally last month that killed 4 people.

On Friday, gunmen shot to death the prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov was a longtime Russian opposition leader and a sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin.

A year ago, Kiev's central square was the center of the protest movement that ousted Ukraine's president. The square remains a home for free speech, including criticism of the current government.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France met in Belarus on Wednesday in an effort to stop the war in Ukraine. The negotiation comes amid the heaviest fighting yet in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have been gaining ground in a fierce offensive.

Leaders from France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to meet in the Belarus capital of Minsk on Wednesday to try to work out a peace deal for the war in Ukraine.

Russia's seizure of Crimea has been widely criticized. But what if Crimea was given away illegally to Ukraine back in 1954? Russian lawmakers are hard at work on their own version of history.

Russian-backed separatists push forward into areas held by the Ukrainian military. The offensive is a disaster for civilians, trapped in towns and villages along the battle front.

Civilians in villages near the front lines in Eastern Ukraine are being forced to leave their homes as fighting intensifies between Government forces and Russian-back separatists.

The eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk has been under siege and subject to artillery and rocket attacks for months — residents are living in stressful conditions and the separatist militia is jumpy.

A tabloid and a TV channel have given play to theories asking if Americans plotted the attacks. Also, some religious figures have said Charlie Hebdo staff brought the violence on themselves.