The leader of Crimea on Thursday visited India as part of a delegation led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was seeking investors to help develop the peninsula annexed by Russia.

Moscow seized Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula in March, sending East-West relations to post Cold War lows and leading U.S. and Europe to impose sanctions on Russia.

utch authorities have identified two more victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in Ukraine, with just four of the 298 dead still unidentified, all of them Dutch, officials said Thursday.

"Two victims of flight MH17 have been identified this week," the Dutch justice ministry ministry said in a statement.

Russia will build 10 more nuclear reactors in energy-starved India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday, after talks with President Vladimir Putin aimed at shoring up ties between the long-time allies.

Putin is in New Delhi seeking to strengthen energy, defense and strategic ties in Asia in an attempt to revive Russia's economy, badly hit by U.S. and EU sanctions over its backing of an uprising in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.

Russia's central bank was under intense pressure Thursday to raise its key rates to stem the ruble's rapid slide and slow rising prices, although the move carries a risk of further strangling the economy.

The bank's board is expected at 1030GMT to publish its monthly monetary policy decision, and analysts are expecting it to hike the rate from the existing 9.5 percent -- in what would be the second increase of the lending rate since the end of October.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday pleaded with Russia to withdraw its troops from his country and close the border, saying it would lead to almost immediate peace.

His comments came as a day-old ceasefire that aims to end eight months of brutal war in the east of Ukraine largely held along the bloodied frontline on Wednesday.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday met a top Russian envoy who said Moscow is hoping to relaunch peace talks for the war-torn country and could host a Syria-U.S. meeting.

After meeting Assad, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying, for the first time, that he "was in contact with our American partners."

A day-old ceasefire largely held along the bloodied frontline in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday but hopes of peace talks and pulling back heavy weaponry still hung in the balance. 

Residents in the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk experienced an unfamiliar silence overnight as both Ukrainian and rebel forces called off shelling.

The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday urged the United States and the European Union to "defrost" relations with Moscow despite tensions over Ukraine.

The 83-year-old said in an article published in state daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the Ukraine crisis had led the West not only to impose sanctions on Russia but also to wind up cooperation on global issues from counter-terrorism to climate change and disease epidemics.

The city of Kharkiv in Ukraine's industrial east has stayed out of rebel hands but a mysterious spate of bombings have triggered fears that Russia is trying to destabilize this key defense hub. 

Barely a week goes by without another bombing reported against Ukrainian military targets in the city of 1.4 million that once served as Ukraine's capital. 

NATO warplanes intercepted a "significant" force of six Russian nuclear-capable bombers over the Baltic Sea, the alliance said in the latest such encounter amid tensions with Moscow over Ukraine.

Four Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers and two Tu-22M Backfire long-range bombers were intercepted in international airspace by Portuguese F-16 fighter jets assigned to NATO, spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.