NewsBite

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, right, listens to his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop during a press conference in Bali, Indonesia, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. Australia and Indonesia have reached a new agreement on how they'll use their intelligence operations in the future, even settling their disagreement on its name.(AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Invest more in defence, Bishop tells NATO

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has foreshadowed new sanctions against Russia if there is no immediate peace pact in Ukraine.

Jacquelin Magnay in Wales

EXCLUSIVEDefence

Job ID PD342857. Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin in his Canberra office. Pic by Gary Ramage.

ADF to train Ukraine forces on our soil

UKRAINIAN military officers will be trained in Australia to improve their leadership skills.

BRENDAN NICHOLSON AND JACQUELIN MAGNAY

Strewth

Kievan Rudd

REMEMBER when Kevin Rudd zipped off to Moscow and everyone thought he was on a one-man mission to broker peace?

PM Tony Abbott attending a flag raising ceremony for National Flag Day at Parliament House in Canberra.

Military aid to Kiev as deal looms

AUSTRALIA is being drawn militarily deeper into the crises in the Middle East and in the Ukraine after a “general request” for help.

Dennis Shanahan

Question Time in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra. The Prime Minister Tony Abbott during Question Time in the House of Representatives in Parliament House Canberra. Pic by Gary Ramage

Ukraine aid may follow new embassy

AUSTRALIA is stepping up action against Russia by banning uranium sales and is opening an embassy in Ukraine.

Defence

Pro-Russian rebels prepare arms for the the assault on the positions of Ukrainian army in Donetsk airport, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called on Ukraine to immediately start talks on a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Hours later, Ukraine said a border guard vessel operating in the Azov Sea was attacked by land-based forces. (AP Photo/Mstislav Chernov)

Canberra toughens Russian sanctions

AUSTRALIA has toughened its sanctions against Moscow in response to intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine.

BRENDAN NICHOLSON

PM Tony Abbott making a statement on Iraq at the start of Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House in Canberra. KS-20140901-05

Australia boosts Russia sanctions

AUSTRALIA is ramping up its sanctions against Russia over Ukraine to the same level as those imposed by European nations.

Editorials

Putin’s cross-border aggression

The West must be resolute in its response to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with South African President Jacob Zuma in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)

More calls to cancel Putin’s G20 invite

TONY Abbott will discuss with international leaders whether Vladimir Putin should be barred from the G20 summit in Brisbane.

BRENDAN NICHOLSON and Cameron Stewart

The World

French volunteers, supporters of Pro-Russian rebels, walk along destroyed Ukrainian military machines at the Lenin square in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting of the nation's security council and canceled a foreign trip Thursday, declaring that

‘Invasion’ raises the stakes

UKRAINE and the West have claimed that Russian troops are actively involved in tearing apart the east of the country.

EXCLUSIVENational Affairs

SRIRACHA , THAILAND - AUGUST 6: In this handout photo Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua poses with baby Gammy at the Samitivej Hospital on August 6, 2014 in Chonburi province in Bangkok, Thailand. David and Wendy Farnell have made international headlines for abandoning their disabled infant son, Gammy, in Thailand with his surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua. Gammy's twin sister lives with the Farnells at their home in Bunbury, Western Australia. The couple have denied abandoning their son on a recent television interview in Australia. (Handout photo via Getty Images)

Fears surrogacy hiding scams

SURROGACY is being used as a smokescreen to traffic children to Australia, the Immigration Department has revealed.

Natasha Bita

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 12: US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to the media during a press conference at the conclusion of the AUSMIN talks at Admiralty House on August 12, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel are meeting with their Australian counterparts Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Australian Defence Minister David Johnston at the annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN), which will focus on regional security and enhanced military co-operation. (Photo by Dan Himbrechts - Pool/Getty Images)

We saw MH17 disappear: Kerry

US officials received real-time satellite images showing a Russia-supplied BUK missile being fired at MH17.

BRENDAN NICHOLSON

Image Â©Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 11/08/2014. Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott visits Eindhoven Air Base, Holland, to meet the Royal Australian Air Force and tour a C-17 aircraft. Squadron Leader Dean Bolton (right) meets the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Picture by Ben Stevens / i-Images

Next stop Iraq for Abbott

TONY Abbott is confident any bodily remains and possessions that could be recovered from the MH17 crash site have been collected.

Jacquelin Magnay

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with local officials in Voronezh, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. Putin says he has ordered the government to develop measures in response to Western sanctions. In a meeting with state officials in the city of Voronezh on Tuesday, did not specify what the measures might be but said:

Abbott considers tit-for-tat sanctions

THE Abbott government has foreshadowed tougher sanctions against Russia.

Rosie Lewis

Murray Goulburn Co-operative MD Gary Helou pictured at The Global Food Forum in Sydney on Wednesday.

Russian ban to thump Aussie dairy

MURRAY Goulburn chief Gary Helou says the Russian embargo will hit Australian dairy hard.

Sue Neales

Russia's President Vladimir Putin chairs a Cabinet meeting in his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, on July 30, 2014. A defiant Russia dismissed today unprecedented Western sanctions over Ukraine after Brussels and Washington unveiled the toughest punitive measures against the Kremlin since the Cold War. AFP PHOTO / RIA-NOVOSTI / POOL/ ALEXEI NIKOLSKY

Russia bans Australian imports

RUSSIA is introducing an embargo on food imports from the EU, US and Australia in response to sanctions imposed over the Ukraine.

FOR TONY ON FOREIGN Chook sheds in background

Weighing up the risks in war zone

THE scores of elite Australian police and servicemen in the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk are truly heading out on a limb.

PAUL TOOHEY in DONETSK

Photo shows a trench along the border of Ukraine with Russia in the Kharkiv region on July 29, 2014. Ukrainian borderguards have already dug more than 75 kilometres of a 300 kilometre trench to prevent possible sudden intrusion of Russian armoured vehicles to the northeastern Ukrainian region. AFP PHOTO/ SERGEY BOBOK

Kostya, AK-47s and chaos

KOSTYA Tszyu was a professional face-breaker, but in the pro-Russian rebel strongholds of eastern Ukraine he’s an icebreaker.

PAUL TOOHEY in DONETSK

Inquirer

US imbalance on Asia pivot

THE constant drumbeat of conflict in Ukraine and Gaza masks the sound of a much deeper drum.

FREE TO USE ACROSS NEWS GROUP MASTHEADS - Photographer is on assignment for The Australian Image Â©Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 27/07/2014. Julie Bishop (pictured), the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Frans Timmermans, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs arrive at Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, and board a private jet to Kiev, Ukraine. Picture by Ben Stevens / i-Images

Bishop: Stop the fighting

AUSTRALIA last night urged Ukraine’s leaders to stop the fighting that has prevented an international search of the MH17 crash site.

BRENDAN NICHOLSON and Jacquelin Magnay

A Ukrainian serviceman of the Donbass volunteer battalion throws a Russian flag out of the window of a building in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on July 26, 2014. Ukrainian troops retook the strategically-important city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine on July 25, as they press on with their offensive to stamp out a pro-Russian rebellion. AFP PHOTO/ GENYA SAVILOV

Fighting stalls AFP search

DUTCH and Australian police were last night prevented for a second time from visiting the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

PAUL TOOHEY and BRENDAN NICHOLSON

In-Depth

This photo taken on July 26, 2014 shows flowers, left by parents of an Australian victim of the crash, laid on a piece of the Malaysia Airlines plane MH17, near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), in the Donetsk region. Ukraine sought on July 25 to avoid a political crisis after the shock resignation of its prime minister, as fighting between the army and rebels close to the Malaysian airliner crash site claimed over a dozen more lives. Dutch and Australian forces were being readied on July 26 for possible deployment to secure the rebel-held crash site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in east Ukraine where many victims' remains still lie nine days after the disaster claimed 298 lives. AFP PHOTO/ BULENT KILIC

Abbott, Putin discuss Ukraine plan

THE two leaders held a telephone conversation to discuss organising an independent international probe into the downing of MH17.

Abbott accrues diplomatic capital

GLOBAL leaders are looking at Australia differently in the wake of flight MH17.

Paul Kelly

Purer view of character on display

THE authentic Tony Abbott has been revealed through his responses to the Ukraine tragedy.

Paul Kelly and Editor at Large

Putin’s interest in dragging matters out

RUSSIA’S strongman Vladimir Putin has behaved brutally and cynically but with considerable tactical flexibility in Ukraine.

Greg Sheridan and comment

Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston looks on as one of four bodies are carried during a ramp ceremony at Kharkiv Aiport, Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 23. The bodies are being flown to the Netherlands after being recovered from the crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 in eastern Ukraine. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt) NO ARCHIVING

AFP force may secure site

UP to 100 Australian Federal Police officers and military personnel could be sent to help secure the MH17 crash site in Ukraine.

BRENDAN NICHOLSON and Jacquelin Magnay