Marinetraffic.com shows Mistral-class "Vladivostok," one of two warships at the heart of France's controversial arms deal with Russia, now under the Russian flag. It's in the French shipbuilding port of St. Nazaire, according to the same website.
A military spokesman in Kyiv says a 5- or 6-year-old girl was killed today when mortar fire hit a village close to the front line in the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian rebels. Andriy Lysenko said the shells were fired by rebels northwest of the separatist-held city of Luhansk. There was no immediate comment from separatists.
Lysenko said one Ukrainian soldier had been killed and six wounded over the previous 24 hours.
More from Reuters on Poroshenko's comments:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday there was "no reason to panic" over the situation in rebellious eastern regions and that the army had sufficient resources to fend off an attack if a fragile ceasefire deal crumbles.
"If events begin to unravel in spite of the peace plan, Ukrainian armed forces today are ready and capable of repelling (an offensive)," Poroshenko said in statement, adding Kiev remained committed to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Bulletin from Reuters:
UKRAINE'S POROSHENKO SAYS UKRAINIAN FORCES ARE READY TO FEND OFF ATTACK IF PEACE PLAN UNRAVELS
Just in from AFP. Interesting, since we just ran a story that explores accusations that the OSCE is biased toward Russia. Read that story here.
Russia on Friday accused OSCE monitors of siding with Ukrainian authorities, warning that their attitude undermined trust in the international security organisation.
"Some aspects of the recent work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine are a cause for concern," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"We get the impression that its efforts are directed at helping and supporting only one side in the conflict, the official authorities in Kiev," it said. "Such policies from the mission's leadership undermine trust in its work.