Viktor Yanukovich

World leaders on Wednesday expressed their shock as supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump stormed here the U.S. Capitol building where Congress meets in an attempt to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election won by Joe Biden.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "saddened" by the events at the U.S. Capitol, his spokesman said.

Illustration - Photo courtesy: U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens/Released

Ukraine has officially set NATO membership as a key foreign policy goal, overturning the country's non-aligned status adopted by the previous government ousted in the Euromaidan coup of 2014.

A $3 billion dispute between two adversarial governments will come to a head in an English court on Jan. 17 when Russia and Ukraine meet for a first hearing in their legal battle over a politically charged eurobond.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an was visibly upset when his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin made him wait for several minutes for a recent meeting in Baku, a senior correspondent has reported in Russian daily Kommersant.

Erdo?an and Putin met in Baku on June 13 when they visited the Azerbaijan capital for the opening of the European Games. 

Russia has key interests in common with the United States and needs to work with it on a common agenda, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 18 in a television interview.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis marked one year since the EuroMaidan public protests ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich from Kiev; Iohannis voiced his hope that the results of the peace negotiations in Minsk will be observed and armed conflict will cease in Ukraine.

Photo credit: (c) ALEX MICSIK / AGERPRES FLOW

Former President Viktor Yanukovich promised to return back home and expressed his regret for the current situation in Ukraine in an interview for the Russian Channel 1.

"No regime is worth the losses Ukraine has suffered after the events of February 21-22, 2014," he said. "The country is destroyed, we see territorial losses, casualties, the destruction of whole regions."

Russia's ambassador to the EU has called on the bloc to launch talks with the newly formed Eurasian Economic Union despite the Western economic sanctions against Moscow imposed over the Ukraine crisis.

Bulgaria's government dismissed the Ukrainian citizen Ivan Avramov from the position honorary consul of Bulgaria in eastern Ukraine over reports that he is involved in alcohol contraband.

A Ukrainian flag was unfurled on the top of a Moscow skyscraper within sight of the Kremlin on Aug. 20, officials said, as fighting in eastern Ukraine has frayed bilateral ties.
      
The Soviet star crowning the Stalin-era skyscraper, located just a kilometre from the Kremlin, was also painted in the yellow and blue colours of the national flag.