Another update from our news desk:
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Russia must give a clear order to separatists in eastern Ukraine and warned the rebels not to try to take the strategic port city of Mariupol.
As casualties mount two weeks into an escalation of fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people, Steinmeier said time is running out for the implementation of a peace plan agreed in September.
Germany's warning came as fighting persisted after a senior leader of the Russian-backed separatists announced plans to seize more ground from government forces on January 23 and rocket attacks blamed on the rebels killed 30 people in Mariupol the following day.
Steinmeier, speaking on January 26, said that a rebel offensive on Mariupol would constitute a significant change in the situation and the West would have to react.
EU foreign ministers will meet on January 29 to discuss what to do about the conflict.
(Reuters)
RFE/RL's news desk has just issued this sanctions-related item:
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has warned the West said putting further economic pressure on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine would be "absolutely destructive."
Dmitry Peskov spoke on January 26, after U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was considering all options except military action to influence Russia's behavior after Moscow-backed separatists launched a new offensive in eastern Ukraine and casualties mounted.
The state-run RIA news agency RIA quoted Peskov as saying that threats to increase economic pressure on Russia were "absolutely destructive, completely unjustified, and in the end shortsighted."
He said that "such blackmail never has and never will cause Russia...to change its consistent and well-known policy."
Peskov said the United States and European Union should instead put more pressure on the Ukrainian government, which Moscow claims is to blame for the recent escalation in the conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people since April.
With reporting by Reuters
Here are a couple of videos from RFE/RL's Crimean Realities YouTube page.
This one shows armed men surrounding the Tatar-language TV station in Simferopol (natural sound):
And this video shows a TV presenter announcing the raid on the station (natural sound, no subtitles):
Here is a map of the latest military situation in Donbas, issued by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (click image to enlarge):
