Talking of the first Maidan victims, this was our piece from a year ago.
From our news desk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko placed flowers to the memorial monument to a Belarusian citizen, Mikhail Zhyzneuski, who died a year ago on Maidan, on January 22.
Poroshenko also laid flowers to the memorial wall to the victims of Maidan near the Parliamentary library in Kyiv.
AP video of the aftermath of the Ukraine bus shelling.
By RFE/RL
NATO says that Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine are expanding their territory by pushing Ukrainian troops westward.
U.S. General Philip Breedlove, NATO's top military commander, said in Brussels on January 22 that the situation along the "line of contact" in eastern Ukraine "is not good" and he is "concerned" that rebels have gained ground on Ukrainian forces.
He refused to give exact numbers or types of Russian armament but said NATO is "beginning to see the signatures" of air-defense systems and electronic hardware systems that have "accompanied past Russian troop movements into Ukraine."
Breedlove added that NATO is "not a threat to Russia" and only seeks to reestablish European norms such as "respect [for] international borders" and the "sovereignty of nations."
He said the alliance will also seek to reestablish communication with Russian General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian armed forces general staff.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
NATO says it intends to reestablish contact with Russian military leaders after months of tension over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
U.S. General Philip Breedlove, NATO's top military commander, said in Brussels on January 22 that alliance officials have discussed how to "reestablish [communication] and the fact that the communication with our senior military interlocutors in Russia is important."
He said several senior NATO military leaders had decided to renew communication with Russian General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian armed forces general staff.
Breedlove said he had spoken to Gerasimov even while Russian troops advanced into Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula early last year.
You may have noticed that we included tweets in this live blog earlier that contained images and videos of Ukrainian POWs who were paraded and publicly abused in Donetsk today following the deadly bus stop explosion that occured there this morning. After discussing the matter in the newsroom, we have decided to delete these tweets and not to publish any more of their ilk out of deference to the prisoners. In the future, we will only run pictures of such incidents when they have an indisputed news value and when the identities of the captives have been obscured (like this image here):
