From AFP:
Western allies should learn in the next few days if their punishing sanctions on Russia have softened its stance on Ukraine enough to justify lifting the drag on Europe's increasingly fragile economic recovery.
Recent signals from Moscow have been encouraging.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered 17,600 troops performing drills near the Ukrainian border back to their bases. And the number of weekend attacks by pro-Kremlin insurgents in the former Soviet state's separatist east sharply fell.
Firmer confirmation of a rapprochement may come on Tuesday in Paris when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confronts Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
But the final answer may only emerge after a likely meeting in Milan on Friday between Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko -- their third since Kyiv's switch of allegiance this year from Moscow to the West.
"I am not expecting these negotiations to be easy," Poroshenko said on Saturday. "But I am an optimist."
At stake will be the fate of a shaky Ukrainian truce deal that -- after the loss of 3,400 lives -- has calmed some fighting but failed to thwart rebel plans to hold their own elections on November 2.
Hanging in the balance are the punitive EU and U.S. restrictions on Russia that have prompted a sort of trade war and contributed to Germany's biggest drop in exports since the global financial crisis of 2009.
From "A Ukrainian Minibus Driver's Surprise Tour Of War Duty" by Sergei L. Loiko in the "Los Angeles Times":
The Ukrainian special forces sergeant jumped into the front seat of Alexander Kosenko's white minibus with two Kalashnikovs slung over his shoulders, his vest stuffed with a dozen ammo clips, some hand grenades and a couple of machete-size daggers.
"Welcome to hell, Daddy!" he shouted over the constant crackle of automatic fire. "From now on your life hangs on how well you can hear me and follow directions. You got it? Don't say a word."
Kosenko, who was wearing only a T-shirt and jeans, obeyed the sergeant. He pushed the gas pedal to the floor.
Read the full story here.