Corey Flintoff

Protestants from the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine say they are being persecuted by the Russian Orthodox Church. Many evangelicals have left because of a crackdown on religious freedom.

General Motors and Volkswagen are closing plants there and laying off workers. Economic problems have led to an estimated 35 percent drop in the once-booming Russian car market.

Separatists and their Russian allies are still trading fire with Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, and casualty counts are rising. The separatists haven't withdrawn heavy weapons, Ukrainians say.

Russia has cut off Ukraine's gas supplies in the past and is threatening to do it again. The latest payment dispute comes at a sensitive moment in the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in Moscow Friday night. Nemtsov was a longtime opposition leader and a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin. Putin condemned the killing.

A year ago, Kiev's central square was the center of the protest movement that ousted Ukraine's president. The square remains a home for free speech, including criticism of the current government.

The forced withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine is a blow to the recent ceasefire agreement — and to President Petro Poroshenko.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France met in Belarus on Wednesday in an effort to stop the war in Ukraine. The negotiation comes amid the heaviest fighting yet in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have been gaining ground in a fierce offensive.

Leaders from France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to meet in the Belarus capital of Minsk on Wednesday to try to work out a peace deal for the war in Ukraine.

Russia's seizure of Crimea has been widely criticized. But what if Crimea was given away illegally to Ukraine back in 1954? Russian lawmakers are hard at work on their own version of history.