In the height of winter, Russia has ceased all gas shipments to Europe through the Ukrainian pipelines. Some countries have been forced to close schools and factories to try to preserve enough gas to heat homes and keep people from freezing to death.

Russia halts gas supplies to Europe while blaming The Ukraine for stealing gas from the pipeline. Putin adds fuel with theatrics during TV interview.

With eastern-European countries increasingly suffering from the gas-payments row between the Ukraine and Russia, Dutch economists are accusing Ukraine of turning their annual row over their unpaid gas bill into an unsavoury political crisis.

Row between Russia and Ukraine continues even as the gas supply from European Union falls further. EU leaders expect more disruption as Russia cut-off the gas supply to Ukraine.

Russia has stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine after the collapse of talks failed to resolve disagreement over prices. Ukraine insists that bills have been paid. Russia's gas giant Gazprom said it turned off the taps at 0700 GMT.

The spectacular rise in the price of oil over the past 2 years has been a bonanza for Russia. This new found wealth has seen more military spending and the political bluster to go with it. With the price of oil collapsing Russia may have blinked.

Three Ukrainians teens were apprehended by the police after they were found with cell phone videos of their crimes including attending their victims’ funerals. They are charged with killing 21 people.

This is about the just concluded fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Hasim Rahman for the WBO Championship of the world. Klitschko knocked out Rahman in the seventh round.

Surely reminiscent of the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy in Italy has a memorable encounter with a peasant woman in a vat of grapes, this story of a Ukrainian woman is one of survival. Read on and…have a drink!

A closer examination of the Russia-Georgia conflict of last summer, reveals a more complex picture of the conflict. It reveals that it was largely an energy war over who has access to the vast oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian region.