Nataliya Vasilyeva

The incident has drawn strong criticism of Russia by the United States and its allies and has fueled fears of wider fighting in the region.

Ukraine’s parliament on Monday voted to impose martial law in the country for 30 days to fight “growing aggression from Russia.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt on Friday after a recommendation by his chief of intelligence for a halt until the cause of last week's crash of a passenger jet in the Sinai Peninsula is determined, as an official said pieces of wreckage from the plane had been brought to Moscow to test for possible traces of explosives.

Russian military jets carried out airstrikes Wednesday against the Islamic State group in Syria for the first time — a move that came after President Vladimir Putin received parliamentary approval to send Russian troops to Syria.

A Russian fishing trawler sank in just 15 minutes early Thursday in the icy waters off Russia's Far East coast, killing at least 56 of its 132 crew members, rescue workers said. The massive trawler Dalny Vostok sank about 4 a.m. local time in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

An explosion ripped through a coal mine before dawn Wednesday in war-torn eastern Ukraine, killing at least one miner, rebel and government officials said. An injured miner reported seeing five bodies.

After weeks of relentless fighting, the embattled Ukrainian rail hub of Debaltseve fell Wednesday to Russia-backed separatists, who hoisted a flag in triumph over the town. The Ukrainian president confirmed that he had ordered troops to pull out and the rebels reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive.

Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft strengthened its hold on the country's lucrative oil industry when it sealed a $61 billion deal, buying TNK-BP, the joint venture between a group of Russian oil oligarchs and the British energy company.

Greenpeace activists were blasted with cold water and pieces of metal after they stormed a floating Russian oil platform and erected climbing tents on the side of the rig to protest drilling in the Arctic.

The sinking of a floating oil rig that left more than 50 crew dead or missing is intensifying fears that Russian companies searching for oil in remote areas are unprepared for emergencies -- and could cause a disastrous spill in the pristine waters of the Arctic.

Environmentalists estimate at least 1 percent of Russia's annual oil production, or 5 million tons, is spilled every year. That is equivalent to one Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months. Crumbling infrastructure and a harsh climate combine to spell disaster in the world's largest oil producer, responsible for 13 percent of global output.