MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Serena Williams’ next Australian Open opponent, 18-year-old Dayana Yastremska, feels as if she saw Saturday’s matchup coming a decade ago.

She tells the story of being at home in Ukraine at the age of 8 and watching on TV as Williams — whom she calls “a legend” ...

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday adopted a bill spelling out procedures for transferring church property after a new unified Ukrainian Orthodox church was granted independence.

The bill could potentially affect some 12,000 churches in Ukraine and vast amounts of ...

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has extended the detention of eight Ukrainian seamen who were among 24 captured by Russian coast guards in the Black Sea.

Three Ukrainian vessels and their crews were fired at and seized by the Russians in November. Russia insists the men should be put on trial ...

MOSCOW (AP) — A dispute between Russia and Ukraine in the waters off the Crimean Peninsula has raised the prospect of a larger military confrontation between the two neighbors.

It follows 4½ years of bloodshed between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the establishment of an Orthodox Church independent of the Russian church is a major step toward moving out of Russia’s shadow.

On Christmas Day, which Ukrainian Orthodox believers celebrated on Monday, Poroshenko attended ...

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Sunday presented a decree of independence to the head of the nascent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formally severing it from the Russian Orthodox Church.

In Istanbul, Patriarch Bartholomew I presented the Tomos, a scroll ...

ISTANBUL (AP) — An independent Ukrainian Orthodox church was created at a signing ceremony in Turkey on Saturday, formalizing a split with the Russian church it had been tied to since 1686.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, signed the “Tomos” in Istanbul in front ...

BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Germany and France are pressing Russia to release Ukrainian sailors captured over a month ago in time for the new year and Orthodox Christmas.

In a joint statement Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron also vowed to keep ...

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s leader has announced an end to the 30-day martial law imposed after Russia seized Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea.

Ukraine announced martial law last month after Russian coast guards fired at and seized three Ukrainian ships and their crews. The 24 seamen still ...

MOSCOW (AP) — A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow is open to having a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in remarks carried Monday by the Interfax news agency that it’s important to have a meeting ...

A painting that was stolen during World War II and later spent decades in a Connecticut home will be returned to an art museum in Ukraine, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

The FBI seized the painting after a retired couple in Ridgefield transported it to Washington, D.C., to be ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president on Saturday signed a bill that orders the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to change its name to reflect its ties to Moscow.

The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries, but some Ukrainian orthodox clerics, with ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Over 1,000 believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church rallied outside the country’s parliament Thursday to protest its demand that their church’s name is changed to reflect its ties to Moscow.

Parliament passed a bill earlier Thursday demanding that the Ukrainian ...

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine plans to again send its warships into the Sea of Azov, a top Ukrainian official said, a move that could set the stage for another clash with Russia.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said in an interview with the BBC ...

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — In his first liturgy as head of the freshly christened Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphanius called Sunday for Ukrainians to unite under the new church and pray for peace in Ukraine.

Speaking the day after Ukrainian bishops approved the charter for a ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian Orthodox leaders on Saturday approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head that new church — a move that could exponentially raise tensions with neighboring Russia.

The vote, held at a ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The Latest on the split between Orthodox Churches in Ukraine and Russia (all times local):

6:25 p.m.

Ukrainian Orthodox leaders say they have approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head the new ...

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics.

Ukraine’s Orthodox clerics will gather for ...

BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union official says EU leaders have agreed to prolong economic sanctions against Russia over its destabilization of Ukraine.

The measures targeting Russia’s economy were due to expire next month, but lifting them depends on whether the EU considers that ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Lyon scraped into the knockout rounds of the Champions League after salvaging a 1-1 draw away to a tenacious Shakhtar Donetsk team on Wednesday.

Playing in freezing sleet in Kiev after the game was relocated due to martial law, Shakhtar took the lead through Junior ...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is studying ways to help bolster the economy in strife-torn eastern Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat said Monday, amid tensions with Russia over a naval confrontation in the Black Sea last month.

Ukraine has been seeking help from its international partners ...

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Ukraine’s defense ministry warned Russia on Friday that it will soon send navy ships through the Kerch Strait where Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels two weeks ago.

The announcement sets up another possible flashpoint in the long-simmering conflict ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — An unarmed U.S. Air Force plane with American and international observers flew a special flight over Ukraine Thursday in a show of solidarity after Ukraine’s naval confrontation last month with Russia in the Black Sea, the Pentagon said.

In a statement, the Pentagon ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A celebrated former Ukrainian military pilot in jail on charges of plotting an attack on parliament said Wednesday that she has started refusing food and water in protest.

Nadiya Savchenko called herself a political prisoner and said she wants to protest what she ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting next week that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, the country’s leader said Wednesday, as the authorities ramped up pressure on priests to support the move.

The Ukrainian church has been part of ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Shipping traffic has resumed to and from Ukraine’s ports on the Sea of Azov following a standoff with Russia, a Ukrainian minister said Tuesday.

Commercial ships were moving through the Kerch Strait linking the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, Infrastructure Minister ...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is unruffled by the refusal of U.S. President Donald Trump to have a meeting on the sidelines of the weekend Group of 20 summit, the Kremlin insisted Tuesday.

The two leaders had been scheduled to have talks during the summit in Buenos Aires ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The Latest on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine(all times local):

11:15 a.m.

NATO foreign ministers are meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin as the country seeks international backing for its Black Sea standoff with Russia.

U.S. Secretary ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian police searched the homes of Russian Orthodox priests and Russian Orthodox churches in several cities Monday, stepping up pressure as Kiev pushes for the creation of an independent Ukrainian church.

The eight searches in Ukraine’s capital and the nearby ...

DUBLIN (AP) — Shakhtar Donetsk is unlikely to be able to play its Champions League game against Lyon in Kharkiv on Dec. 12 because of the security situation in Ukraine.

The UEFA executive committee has decided that no matches from its competitions will be played at stadiums in areas where ...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president announced a partial call-up of reservists for training amid tensions with Russia, saying Monday that the country needs to beef up its defenses to counter the threat of a Russian invasion.

The Kremlin dismissed the Ukrainian leader’s statement as an ...

CHERTKOVO, Russia/ MILOVE, Ukraine (AP) — Valentina Boldyreva stepped out of her two-story house on an overcast and snowy Sunday afternoon to say hello to her 76-year-old sister who lives on the other side of Friendship of People’s Street, a tall barbed-wire fence separating them. 

“You ...