Kiev

Secretary of state for European Affairs with the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE), George Ciamba on Monday told the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) reunion in Brussels that it is necessary a consistent support for Turkey and Lebanon in particular in managing the Syrian refugees' situation.

Bulgaria is a negative example in terms of economic development after its EU accession, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes.

Top US diplomat John Kerry is set to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Rome on Dec. 14, amid anger in Moscow over the prospect of new US sanctions and possible supply of lethal military aid to Ukraine.
      

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has asserted a "real ceasefire" which entered into force on Tuesday is now being observed.

While on an official visit to Australia, Poroshenko asserted a truce had been registered "for the first time in seven months in Ukraine."

Crash investigators were to begin reconstructing the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 shot down over eastern Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people on board, after wreckage arrived by truck at a Dutch air force hangar on Dec. 9.
   
Members of the national Safety Board will piece together the remains of the plane to determine exactly what brought down flight MH17.
   

Energy-starved Ukraine said Dec. 9 it had received the first Russian natural gas shipments since a politically charged price dispute saw Moscow cut off supplies to its Westward-leaning neighbor in June.

The announcement means that the war-torn nation of 45 million people should have enough power to heat homes through the bitter winter months.

NATO warned about "wrongly assessing" Russian policy

MOSCOW -- Russia "does not want Ukraine to be split up," NATO intelligence officials say, according to the Russian media outlet RT.

They "warned their colleagues against wrongly assessing Moscow's policy on the crisis in eastern Ukraine."

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic said on Sunday that Serbia's OSCE chairmanship starting as of January 1 is a great challenge, but also a chance for Serbia to show that it could play the role of a fair mediator in peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Ukrainian state-owned utility Naftogaz has paid USD 378 M to the Russian concern Gazprom, in line with to its plans to have booked a billion cubic meters by the end of 2014.

Gazprom confirmed within a few hours the news announced Saturday on Naftogaz's website.

Bulgaria's "Mom" Brussels and its "Dad" Washington had warned Bulgaria to suspend its funding if it allows South Stream on its soil, Russian news agency RIA wrote on Friday.