Via AFP:
The Russian defense ministry says its warships have entered the English Channel to wait out a storm following a week of maneuvers in the North Sea.
The ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that a naval destroyer, a landing craft, a rescue tugboat and a tank ship had to anchor in the international waters of the Bay of the Seine, off France, on Friday. The ministry said the ships have been conducting naval exercises in the North Sea since Nov. 20.
Russia has conducted a variety of exercises following the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and its involvement in eastern Ukraine. A recent think tank report recorded a sharp rise in Russian-NATO military encounters since the annexation, including violations of national airspace and close encounters at sea.
This is indeed an oblique treatment of the story, which is apparent persecution and egregious rights violations against Crimea's Ukrainian-speaking population.
A ceremony honoring the victims of the MH17 crash was held at the international airport in Kharkiv today, according to TASS. Dutch investigators have been poring over the area of eastern Ukraine near Donetsk where the Malaysian airliner went down in mid-July for remains of the 298 victims and plane wreckage for the past several weeks, a search that was delayed months by continued fighting as Ukrainian troops battle pro-Russian forces.
The investigators will return and continue their search in the spring, Dutch Security and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten told a news conference today, according to TASS.
The Ukrainian Security Service's Support Center for Hostage Releases told reporters today that some 1,800 Ukrainian troops have been freed so far from rebel captivity, including more than 1,000 who benefited from that center's mediation efforts.
A recent Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council estimate suggested there were still more than 700 Ukrainian captives in rebel hands.
Here's today's map from the Ukrainian military authorities:
