Ukraine

DONETSK, February 12. /TASS/: The situation in Donetsk is calm now, and the reports about an explosion that appeared on social networks have not been confirmed, a source in the law enforcement agencies of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told TASS on Saturday.

"The situation is calm in Donetsk, the reports of an explosion in the city, which are circulating on the social media, have not been confirmed," he said.

Washington, Feb 12 (AP) The United States is set to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv as Western intelligence officials warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasingly imminent.

U.S. officials say the State Department plans to announce early Saturday that all American staff at the Kyiv embassy will be required to leave the country ahead of a feared Russian invasion. The State Department would not comment.

DONETSK, February 11. /TASS/: More than 130 mass graves of civilians that were killed during Ukraine’s aggression were found in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed republic, said at a news conference on Friday.

"On the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic alone, more than 130 mass graves of the victims of the Ukrainian aggression were found and opened," he said. "They are mass graves of civilians that were killed during operations by Ukraine’s armed forces in the DPR in Snezhnoye, Debaltsevo, Khartsyzsk and Ilovaisk."

KYIV, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Russia has withdrawn previously announced restrictions for ships in the Sea of Azov linked to naval drills in the area, Ukraine's sea port Authority said on Friday.

"The movement of ships by recommended routes to the seaports of Ukraine in the Sea of Azov is open," the Authority said in a report.

Ukraine, one of the world's leading exporters of steel, grain and sunflower oil, carries exports through ports on the Black and Azov Seas - Odessa, Pivdeny, Chornomorsk, Kherson, Mariupol and Berdyansk.

DONETSK, Ukraine, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Politicians and military sources in Russian-backed breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine say they do not see an imminent risk of full-scale war while attempts are still under way to find a diplomatic solution.

A long-simmering conflict between the Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army is part of a deeper crisis between the two countries in which Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, prompting U.S. warnings of a possible attack within days or weeks.

ADIIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — In the trenches of eastern Ukraine, across the lines from some of the 100,000 Russian troops amassed north and east of the country, Ivan Skuratovskyi’s calm verges on numbness — even after a sniper’s bullet recently killed one of the 50 or so men under his command.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Moscow would not further escalate the Ukraine crisis.

Macron also said it would take time to find a diplomatic solution to the rising tensions, which represent the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

KIEV, February 8. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron urged to comply with the Minsk Accords that are the sole foundation for settling the crisis in Ukraine following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky.

"The Minsk Accords are the only way that will allow us to establish peace, the only way that will help find a long-term political solution," he said.

MARIUPOL, Ukraine, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Visibly shaken, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stood in front of the ruins of a house near the frontline of the conflict in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

"It leaves me with a very heavy feeling that here, right by the beach, which should be one of the prettiest places to be in the country, you can actually feel what happened here years ago," she said at a former resort near the port of Mariupol.

KYIV, Feb 8 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron, the first leader of a major Western power to meet Vladimir Putin since Russia massed troops near Ukraine, said on Tuesday he believed steps can be taken to de-escalate the crisis and called on all sides to stay calm.

Macron, who in contrast to the U.S. and British leaders, has played down the likelihood that Russia may soon invade its neighbour, shuttled from Moscow to Kyiv on Tuesday in a high-profile bid to act as a mediator.