Russia

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife MOSCOW/STOCKHOLM (BosNewsLife)-- Ukraine is celebrating after it won the Eurovision Song Contest with an emotionally charged song about Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin's deportation in 1944 of nearly a quarter of a million Crimean Tatars. Yet the song by Susana Jamaladinova, a 32-year-old trained opera singer who uses the stage name Jamala, has angered critics in Russia, which came in third after Australia.

Listen to this BosNewsLife News report via Vatican Radio:  By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV/BUDAPEST (Vatican Radio)-- A tense calm has returned to the streets of Ukraine's capital Kyiv's following clashes between pro and anti-government demonstrators. It comes at a time when protesters are remembering those who died in more than two months of unrest.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- Officials say heavy fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine has forced hundreds of Ukrainian army soldiers to cross into Russia. Kiev says it will pressure Moscow to get them back.

By BosNewsLife News Center MEXICO CITY/MOSCOW (BosNewsLife)-- Christian Maya looked on in wonder Friday, December 21, at the invasion of foreign tourists to ancient cities in southern Mexico and Central America where they expected the world to end based on ancient Maya predictions.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- An ethnic Polish priest who was abducted by armed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine has been freed, but his release did little to ease tensions as Ukrainian government forces advanced to the rebel-held stronghold of Donetsk.

Listen to this BosNewsLife News report via Vatican Radio:  By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- As many as half a million Ukrainians have participated in a pro-European Union rally in the capital Kyiv, where many toppled the statue of late Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and called for the president to step down. Sunday's rally was the biggest demonstration since the pro-freedom Orange Revolution in 2004.

By BosNewsLife News Center MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Christian missionaries say they have stepped up efforts to spread the "Gospel pf peace and hope" in Russia's volatile North Caucasus after revelations that the suspected Boston Marathon bombers arrived from that region.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife BUDAPEST/KIEV (BosNewsLife)-- Devoted Russian and Ukrainian Christians were among those commemorating the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster Tuesday, April 26, amid new warnings that  the impact of the explosion at Ukraine's Chernobyl plant is more serious than previously thought.

By BosNewsLife News Center with reports from Moscow MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Russia buried its first post-Soviet Orthodox patriarch, Alexy II, Tuesday, December 9, after a funeral attended by presidents, foreign emissaries and the country's political elite.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife) Tens of thousands of people have come out in Moscow to mourn former deputy prime minister and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed late Friday. Many carried Russian flags and the photo of the 55-year-old politician, who was one of the most vocal opponents of Russian president Vladimir Putin.