Speaking in Hanover to mark Germany's national day, Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the Ukraine conflict, dpa reports:
"We see that international law and the principle of territorial integrity, the fundamental principles after the end of the Second World War and the Cold War, are being openly trampled in the middle of Europe and that we are falling back into old mental habits whereby neighboring states are not seen as partner nations, but as a sphere of influence. That's what's actually happening in Ukraine," she said.
"Beyond the borders of the European Union, we must support those in our neighborhood who share our values to build states by free self-determination, for example Ukraine, Moldavia and Georgia," the chancellor said.
Russia says the Ukraine cease-fire must be maintained, our news desk reports:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has spoken to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about the "need" to maintain a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine.
The ministry says Lavrov made the comments during a telephone conversation with Kerry on October 3.
It says Lavrov called for "strict compliance" with a cease-fire agreement signed on September 5 in Minsk, as well as an end to shelling in residential areas of Donetsk -- which is under the control of pro-Russian separatists.
A dozen civilians have been killed in and around Donetsk during the past week, including a Swiss Red Cross worker killed by a mortar shell on October 2.
Separatists have been shelling and attempting to capture the government-controlled airport in Donetsk.
Ukraine's government and separatists blamed each other for the Swiss aid worker's death.
Russia says he was killed by Ukrainian government forces. (Interfax and ITAR-TASS)
It doesn't look like Ukrane has any intention of meeting Russia's extradition request for the man who claimed responsibility for planting Ukraine's flag on a Moscow skyscraper this summer:
LATEST from the news desk:
Russian Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin has told the OSCE that "crimes against humanity" have been committed in Ukraine and that those responsible must face an international tribunal.
Naryshkin made the remarks on October 3 in Geneva to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
He said Russia insists that an international tribunal investigate what he called "the mass graves" of people he alleges were "brutally tortured and slain" in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region.
Russian media have reported that an "OSCE expert" confirmed the existence of two mass graves with more than 400 bodies near Donetsk.
But the OSCE said on October 1 that the man making those claims, Latvian political activist Einars Graudins, is not a member of the OSCE monitoring mission and "has no link whatsoever" with the OSCE.
Graudins' mass grave claims have not been independently confirmed. (Interfax and ITAR-TASS)