From Reuters:
Germany and France will present a new proposal shortly under which their soldiers could participate in the monitoring of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
The spokesman Martin Schaefer said the plan would be presented in the "next hours or days" but added: "One thing is clear. Before German and French soldiers or others are sent to participate in the civil monitoring mission of the OSCE in Ukraine, there are some political and legal questions that must be resolved."
He said one of these questions was the role of the Bundestag lower house of parliament in approving such a mission.
From the German news agency dpa:
DONETSK, Ukraine (dpa) -- Two drones arrived in Kyiv on Monday to help an international mission to monitor the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Coperation in Europe (OSCE) said.
The Austrian-made unmanned aerial vehicles will enhance the mission's monitoring capability, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told dpa.
He added that a total of four drones had been ordered and that the vehicles would be operated by civilian experts from Vienna-based manufacturer Schiebel.
The OSCE, Europe's largest security watchdog, currently has some 200 unarmed monitors in Ukraine, many of whom are observing the cease-fire between government troops and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Read the full story here.
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council:
From our News Desk:
NATO's new chief says the alliance wants "constructive" relations with Russia despite moves to bolster the defense of member states in Eastern Europe.
Jens Stoltenberg, who is on his first trip abroad since becoming NATO secretary-general last week, spoke in an interview published in the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" on October 6.
"There is no contradiction between a strong NATO and building constructive relations with Russia," he said.
Stoltenberg pledged NATO would respect its international commitments, including a post-Cold War deal with Moscow limiting deployments in the former communist bloc.
In comments broadcast on October 5, Stoltenberg told the Polish state broadcaster TVP Info that NATO could deploy its forces "wherever" it wanted, potentially calling into question its 1997 promise to Russia that it would not permanently station significant combat forces in the east.
Relations between NATO and Moscow are badly strained by the Ukraine crisis.
Intense footage uploaded to YouTube on October 5 showing pro-Russian rebels using machine guns, RPGs, and tanks during what appears to be their assault on the Donetsk airport. The date the footage was taken is unknown.