US-backed militia says Raqqa to be part of ‘federal Syria’

Raqqa will be part of a decentralized federal Syria after the city has been freed from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), the US-backed militias that captured it said on Friday.

En Syrie, les autorités attendent que les Kurdes leur remettent Raqqa

Une fois Raqqa libérée des terroristes, les autorités syriennes attendent qu'elle leur soit remise par les Kurdes qui mènent actuellement l'offensive contre la ville, considérée comme la capitale de l’État islamique.

Turquie: Erdogan nie toute intention d'aller vers un Etat fédéral

Le président Recep Tayyip Erdogan a été contraint vendredi de nier toute intention de transformer la Turquie en Etat fédéral, afin de rassurer ses alliés ultranationalistes dont il a besoin pour remporter un référendum crucial.

US commander sees no Kurdish federation in Syria’s future

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) does not expect the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be able to build a Kurdish federal state in Syria’s north, according to the coalition forces’ commander.

Kurdish representative says Kurds’ federalization is step towards resolving Syrian crisis

The federalization of the Kurds in northern Syria is one of the ways of resolving the Syrian crisis, Chairman of the Council of the Federal National and Cultural Kurdish Autonomy in Russia Farhat Patiev told TASS on Friday.

Syrian Kurds set to announce federal system in northern Syria

Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system on Wednesday, a Syrian Kurdish official said, taking matters into their own hands after being excluded so far from political talks to resolve the Syrian war.

Ukraine’s Odessa remembers victims of May 2 tragedy

Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa is remembering the victims of the May 2, 2014 unrest, which claimed 48 lives.

Russia may back Donbas independence if no other options are left, says parliamentarian

Russia may support independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics if no other options remain for the settlement of Ukrainian crisis, the chairman of the upper house’s international affairs committee told Kommersant.fm radio on Friday.

Ukraine territorial integrity can be saved only by federalization. - (German Vice-Chancellor)

BERLIN, August 23 (Itar-Tass) - It is possible to save Ukraine's territorial integrity only by federalization, German Economy Minister and Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview to Sunday's Welt am Sonntag, published on Saturday.

Ukraine’s territorial integrity can be saved only if the offer is made to the regions where most of the population are Russians. A well-considered conception of federalization is viewed as the only way, he said.

Ukrainian daily says shots, explosions heard at Kramatorsk military airdrome

A Ukrainian daily claims with reference to witnesses that shots and explosions were heard at the military airdrome near the city of Kramatorsk, the Donetsk Oblast, on Tuesday.

According to the website of the daily Novosti Kramatorska, a military aircraft circled over the airdrome for a while.

“Witnesses say it was a MiG-25 or Sukhoi-27 plane. It was flying at a very low altitude,” the paper said.

Lavrov: US and EU line on Ukraine "unproductive and dangerous".

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has slammed the West for “aggravating internal differences” in Ukraine. His ministry says Kiev should stop “blaming Moscow for all of your problems”.
Writing in UK’s Guardian newspaper, the Russian official said that Western powers “have been trying to compel Ukraine to make a painful choice between east and west, further aggravating internal differences,” referring to the EU-Ukraine cooperation agreement that sparked the stand-off that led to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovich.