Russia complained Monday of a failure to release details of the investigation into the Malaysian jet that crashed in Ukraine in July, accusing international investigators of lack of transparency.

An opposition leader emerged victorious in the presidential vote in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, authorities said on Monday, in an election denounced as illegal by the European Union and Georgia.

Raoul Khadjimba, 56, the leader of the republic's main opposition group, won Sunday's election outright in the first round by taking 50.57 percent of the vote, the local election commission said.

Voters in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia went to the polls on Sunday to choose a president from two former KGB trainees in an election already denounced as illegal by the European Union and Georgia. 

Abkhazia, which is recognized only by a handful of states including Russia, called snap elections following the resignation of former president Alexander Ankvab in June.

A solution must be found to the Ukraine crisis that does not hurt Russia and which the Ukrainian people must choose for themselves, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday.

"I want to find a way that doesn't harm Russia," Merkel told German ARD public television in her traditional summer interview.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on September 1 in Brussels to agree a framework for renewed nuclear talks, Iran said on Sunday.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday decried Russian "aggression" as Kiev staged a symbolic Independence Day parade while battling pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for a new ceasefire in crisis talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday, as a controversial Russian convoy returned home.

The visit by Merkel -- the most influential Western leader to call on Kiev since the crisis erupted in the ex-Soviet state -- came ahead of crunch talks next Tuesday between Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin alongside top EU officials.

Russia's decision to ignore warnings from Kiev and the West and force a disputed aid convoy into Ukraine reflects the Kremlin's urgent need to retain influence over the splintered ex-Soviet state, analysts say.

Although Moscow cited a critical lack of humanitarian aid for populations cut off by fighting, President Vladimir Putin had his own reasons for wanting the convoy to break through ahead of a crucial meeting next week with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Ukrainian forces may be pummeling them daily and key leaders might have just quit but defiant pro-Russian rebels say any talk of them being on the back foot is just crude propaganda from Kiev.

Manning a barricade on the eastern edges of the besieged rebel bastion Donetsk insurgent fighter Grozny is categorical that the separatist forces will ultimately prevail.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit ally Moscow next week, the Islamic republic's ambassador to Russia wrote on Facebook Friday, media reports said.

Mehdi Sanaei said that Zarif will travel on August 29 to meet his counterpart Sergei Lavrov, saying only that their talks would focus on bilateral, regional and international issues.