Russia's launch of air strikes against rebel targets in Syria will not alter the strategy of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, American officials have said.

NATO's top commander believes Russia's new presence includes the first pieces of an intricate layer of defensive systems deployed to hinder U.S. and coalition operations in the region.

The president says Russian troops will not take part in ground operations in the Middle East after meeting President Barack Obama.

Kiev says the two soldiers are members of Russian special forces and accuse them of taking part in fighting against the Ukrainian army.

Vladimir Putin snubbed Barack Obama and revived Russia’s historic role in the Middle East on Monday by calling for a new “broad coalition” to fight Isil based on co-operation with the Assad regime.

The Dutch electorate is expected to be given the chance to vote on an EU-Ukraine treaty in a referendum, in what would be the first citizen-enforced plebiscite in the country's history.

Bashar al-Assad’s key backers hail the turn-around by Western leaders in accepting the Syrian president would remain in power, at least in the short-term future.

A remark by Merkel at the press conference in the night of 23-24 September has sparked tensions in Bulgaria, prompting Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to deny that he had asked ‘hospots’ for refugees to be set up in the country.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a new military doctrine on Thursday (24 September) naming Russia as the main military threat to Ukraine, according to a statement on the presidential website.

Russia sends dozens of fighter jets and helicopter gunships to Syria amid growing signs that Western leaders may support plan to allow Bashar al-Assad to remain in power in the country.

Donald Tusk says biggest influx is yet to come, but EU leaders offer a thin package to answer the crisis.

Hungarian foreign minister attacks the EU refugee quota forced through as a waste of time after interior ministers forced a plan to relocate 120,000 on the continent.

EU leaders are gathering in Brussels on Wednesday (23 September) for an emergency summit on the refugee crisis after ministers agreed to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers.

Ukraine can count on the Alliance’s continued political and practical support, Stoltenberg told members of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council on 22 September 2015 in Kiev.

Vladimir Putin is carrying out Russia's biggest military intervention outside the old Soviet Union for almost 30 years.

Hungary accused of new iron curtain ahead of meeting of European interior ministers.

Russia is to deploy 2,000 military personnel to its new air base near the Syrian port city of Latakia, signalling the scale of Moscow's involvement in the war-torn country.

An EU contact familiar with the draft text told it no longer contains the Commission’s mathematical "key" on redistribution. The EU source said this means the mandatory idea is "dead".

Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia insist they are neither financially nor 'culturally' equipped to take in new arrivals.

Slovenia has also stepped up border checks.

Croatia closes seven out of eight border crossings with Serbia while Slovenia turns back train carrying migrants.

"We expect a peak within the next two weeks ... over 20,000 migrants," Sinisa Varga, health minister, said.

EU leaders will hold an emergency summit on the migrant crisis on Wednesday (23 September), amid crackdowns on EU borders and disagreement on how to share 120,000 refugees.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the Croatian president, has asked the army "to be ready to protect national border".

Country is new route to western Europe after Hungary closed border and has offered refugees free passage.

Hungarian riot police on Wednesday (16 September) forced back hundreds of people seeking refuge at the Serb border after firing tear gas and water cannons.

People trying to walk to the EU via Croatia, after Hungary sealed its border, risk straying into old minefields, a Facebook group has warned.

More than 367 people entered Hungary but were soon detained by police as migrants and refugees seek other routes across Europe.

Buses in Serbia are reportedly preparing to take refugees to the Croatian border after Hungary completely sealed its border on Tuesday (15 September) with a razor-wire fence.

Putin has urged the EU and US to join him and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in the fight against Islamic State.

Budapest will build a fence along part of its border with Romania to ensure migrants and refugees can be kept out of the country, the country's foreign minister has said.

Putin, Russian president, has defended Russia's support given to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president as many believe Moscow's military buildup continues. Yesterday, the US suggested that Russia intends to set up an air base in Syria.

During the MC Conference, the 28 Allied Chiefs of Defence took stock of the implementation of the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) and agreed that the conditions are set for the RAP to be delivered in time for the Warsaw Summit next year.

Interior ministers in Brussels on Monday (14 September) are set to determine the fate of 160,000 asylum seekers.

When Russia sent military forces into Syria last weekend, it caught NATO by surprise and proved that its members can neither stay ahead of threats nor even decide which ones are the most pressing.

German chancellor will ask UK to stand aside as she promotes ambitious plan to integrate continental Europe’s armed forces,

Sweden has called in Russia's ambassador to explain comments by a foreign ministry spokeswoman who said any Swedish decision to join NATO would have "consequences" that would compel Russia to respond.

Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that he will call an extraordinary summit if the Union’s justice and home affairs ministers fail to reach an agreement, based on the Commission’s plan to redistribute 160,000 refugees among them.

Catalan premier Artur Mas has cast a Sept 27 regional election as a de facto referendum on secession from Spain, with a win for his coalition a mandate for a unilateral declaration of independence.

The Hungarian prime minister vows to enforce new laws allowing the arrest of anyone entering the country illegally from next Tuesday.

Is it possible that anyone in this administration really believes that invasion would have been the inevitable consequence of accepting the 2012 recommendation of Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton, David Petraeus, and Martin Dempsey.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that a deal between Russia's Gazprom and its European partners to expand the Nord Stream gas pipeline was a "betrayal" that would cost Ukraine and Slovakia a combined billions of euros.

General Jens Stoltenberg attended the inauguration of a NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) in Vilnius, calling the opening “a big step forward towards greater solidarity, greater strength, and greater readiness.

Kremlin energy tsar says OPEC may have to ditch its low-price policy within months. But Russia needs to cut output quietly too.

Neutered Leftist party set to lose power to pro-euro conservatives on September 20, according to latest polls.

Concession announced by Werner Faymann, the Austrian Chancellor, within hours of Hungarian authorities providing buses for more 1,000 refugees who had set off on foot for Vienna.

The prime ministers of Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak republics have rejected the proposal of migrant quotas, branding the idea as “unacceptable”.

These were among the 500 stopped at the train station on their way to Sopron, close to the border with Austria, after 48 hours of being outside Keleti rail station in Budapest.

Merkel has encouraged more refugees to risk their lives in attempts to reach Europe by saying her country would take more asylum-seekers, the leader of Britain's anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) said.

A new Ipsos Mori survey for STV has found that 53% of Scots would now vote for independence, compared to 44% who wanted to remain part of the UK and 3% who were undecided.

The European Commission plans to redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers arriving in Greece, Italy, and Hungary among other member states.

Six columns of 1,038 tractors and 49 buses approached Paris on Thursday to take part in a massive demonstration by farmers petitioning the French government and the EU for aid.


Some 12,000 troops file past President Xi Jinping in Beijing, along with formations of tanks and armoured vehicles as warplanes screamed overhead.

The commission recommended that the question should be: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?".

Hundreds of migrants in Budapest on Tuesday (1 September) demanded to be allowed to go to Germany, after authorities barred them from boarding trains heading west.

Merkel said the nation and the whole of the EU must find an urgent solution to Europe's migration problem.

Thinktank says Britain has duty to stand up to Vladimir Putin's strategy of creating "manageable chaos" along NATO's eastern flank

The German Chancellor says for the first time that the Schengen zone cannot continue in its current form unless other EU countries accept their share of migrants.

In keeping with its increasingly aggressive behavior, Russia is deploying lethal and long-ranged anti-aircraft defenses to keep Western forces out of three key regions: the Baltics, the Black Sea, and the Levant.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has put Ukraine in "zugzwang" and, as things now stand, the country is unable to move forward militarily, economically or diplomatically.

But the really troubling thing is that in the war games being played, the United States keeps losing.

Russia has sent some of its most modern battle tanks to a new air base in Syria that could give Moscow its most significant military foothold in the Middle East in decades.

Congress is finally having its say on the Iran deal. It will be an elaborate charade, however, because, having first gone to the United Nations, President Obama has largely drained congressional action of relevance.

Calls for a permanent NATO presence will not die down any time soon, given the persistence of Poland and the Baltic States before and after the Wales summit. Efforts might even be intensified in the run-up to the 2016 Warsaw summit,

Results show the pro-independence parties took 72 seats - enough for the mandate to seek secession from Spain.

'We mustn’t close the door to the British if what they are demanding from other member states is acceptable,' said French economic tsar Emmanuel Macron.

"It is clear that greatest tide of refugees and migrants is yet to come", Tusk said.

EU interior ministers approve by a "large majority" a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees around the bloc after overriding fierce opposition from central and eastern European countries.

Syriza win resounding and unlikely victory as charismatic ex-PM Alexis Tsipras is re-elected.

US secretary of state makes third call in 10 days to Russian counterpart after president Vladimir Putin defended his military assistance to Assad's government.

Core of ex-Communist eastern states block efforts by Germany and France to secure agreement on sharing out responsibility for sheltering refugees.

Germany and Austria temporarily reintroduce border controls as tens of thousands of migrants pour in ahead of talks on Monday.

Russian president talks of desire for "international coalition" to fight terrorism and extremism and does not rule out possibility of direct military intervention in Syria.