Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for an international peacekeeping mission in his nation's war-torn east.

The public could be wise to be sceptical or wary about politicians trying to manipulate them about the global fight against ISIS, writes Bryce Edwards.

69: Snipers were on the battlefield long before Clint Eastwood revived the military gunman with his Iraq war film American Sniper.

Ukraine has appealed to the West to get tough on Russia after separatists it says are militarily backed by Moscow stormed a flashpoint town.

The film clip of Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee striding into the bowels of the $250 million Boeing C-17 Globemaster for a test drive this week was scary.

There is no crime of war, nor crime against humanity that they have not committed, writes Alexander Gillespie. But what is NZ's risk in getting involved?

68: John Martin was born by the sea, worked on the water around New Zealand and finally surrendered to the ocean when he went to serve.

The 94-year-old Wellington veteran received the honour at French Ambassador Laurent Contini's home in Thorndon tonight.

What drives Putin is a grab-bag of emotional motives. His man in Kiev got overthrown, and he doesn't like to lose face, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Rising Hollywood star Kodi Smit-McPhee hates war.

As 4500 tonnes of explosives fell from 800 British planes, 25,000 Dresdeners died in a raging firestorm and the heart of their historic city was obliterated.

"Urgent. Soldiers of the Islamic State captured 21 Christian crusaders," was a barely noticed statement issued on social media last month by Isis - not in Syria, Iraq, but in Libya.

66: Sheep farmer Percy Overton was 37 when he sailed for war in October 1914.

One hundred years ago today, a skinny young labourer from Ngatimoti died on a dusty field on the other side of the world.

65: Evan Hudson's family made sure he would not be forgotten.

One hundred years after a Tauranga mill-hand was cut down by machine-gun fire high on Gallipoli Peninsula, his war medals have been reunited with his descendants.

Jordan yesterday renewed its offer to swap a convicted terrorist for the return of its air force pilot held captive by Isis.

64: War-weary soldiers forgot their troubles when they saw the New Zealand Pierrots take to the stage.

63: Inscribed on one of the bells in the National War Memorial is a tribute to Leslie Heron Beauchamp.

A 46-year-old Ukrainian tank commander says politicians might yet stop the conflict that grips the east of his country, but supplies of arms from the West would bring a quicker result.

62: William Clachan was made of tough stuff. The Wellington schoolteacher was wounded three times on the Western Front.

61: Today we might call them special forces. When Robert Kenneth Nicol joined a top secret British Army unit in 1918, it was known as the "hush-hush brigade".

A lost documentary Alfred Hitchcock made about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps during World War Two has finally reached screens thanks to movie mogul Brett Ratner.

60: At the outbreak of World War I, Victor Spencer joined queues of young volunteers eager to fight for king and country.

Few major institutions in Auckland's history devoted 82 per cent of their staff to a war.

Seventy years ago today, a German submarine went on an unsuccessful search for ships to sink in New Zealand waters.

58: He was a dashing English gent of Maori descent with a daring need for speed, who became the first airman to win a Victoria Cross in World War I.

57: One hundred and forty chaplains accompanied New Zealand forces to war.