Washington says Ukrainian pilot's life "hangs in the balance":
U.S. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki says the life of Ukrainian air force officer Nadia Savchenko "hangs in the balance" after 54 days on a hunger strike in a Russian prison.
Psaki called Savchenko "a hostage to Russian authorities" and said Washington demanded her immediate release in accordance with the commitments Russia made under an agreement signed in Minsk in September.
A court in Moscow announced on February 4 that it would issue a ruling on February 10 about whether to grant a request by Russia’s Investigative Committee to extend Savchenko’s pretrial detention until May 13.
Savchenko began her hunger strike on December 13 to protest her incarceration by Russian authorities.
She was transferred to the hospital ward at Moscow's notorious Matrosskaya Tishina detention center on January 29 because of what medical personnel described as "abrupt weight loss."
Savchenko was captured by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in June and transferred to Russian custody in July.
Russian prosecutors have charged her with involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists who were killed while covering the war in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian military forces are helping civilians evacuate the town of Debaltseve, which has been hit by heavy shelling amid ongoing clashes. Servicemen also brought in supplies of bread for residents who were unable or unwilling to leave. Officers said they were attempting to establish a safe corridor to facilitate travel in and out of the embattled town. (Produced by RFE/RL's Current Time TV program)
EU mulls more sanctions on Russia:
The European Union is discussing proposals for an expanded sanctions list over Russia's involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine.
Diplomats in Brussels told RFE/RL that EU ambassadors were near an agreement on February 4 to add 25 individuals and entities to the list.
Senior Russian officials were not expected to be named.
EU foreign ministers agreed on January 29 to expand the list and to extend until September an initial EU sanctions list targeting Russians and pro-Russia separatist leaders in Ukraine.
The expanded list is expected to be approved by EU foreign ministers on February 9.
In Washington, a senior official said Vice President Joe Biden would meet in Europe with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko later this week to discuss expanded sanctions against Russia and possible U.S. security assistance for Ukraine.
Biden visits Brussels on February 5 and Munich on February 6 before returning to Washington on February 8.
U.S. NATO envoy talks about Russian troops in Ukraine:
The U.S. ambassador to NATO says Russian troops have been active in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began there in April, but he does not expect another large-scale Russian military intervention soon.
Douglas Lute said before a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on February 4 that Russian specialists had a "command-and-control role" in eastern Ukraine and were operating sophisticated military equipment that would be difficult for untrained pro-Russian separatists to use.
He said Russian troops there include intelligence operatives and soldiers, both with and without military uniforms.
Lute said there was a "spike" in August 2014 "in direct Russian intervention in the form of Russian military units," including "Russian battalions as coherent formations deployed into Ukraine."
But he said, "We don't see another such direct intervention [by Russia] as imminent." (Reuters)
Russian "cancellation" of Soviet transfer of Crimea rumbles on:
The head of the Russian Federation Council says legislation will be adopted during the spring that retroactively proclaims the Soviet Union's 1954 transfer of Crimea to Ukraine as "legally void and nonbinding" from the moment the transfer was enacted.
Valentina Matviyenko told reporters on February 4 that draft legislation on the issue is currently being studied by experts.
Matviyenko said that if the law was passed, it would not have "any legal consequences."
She said the legislation would be a "historical document for future generations" aimed at showing that the transfer in 1954 was "an injustice committed against Crimea and Sevastopol."
In December, Matviyenko said Russian legal analysts determined the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was "unlawful" because it violated the constitution and legal procedures of the time.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March after deploying Russian troops across the peninsula and quickly conducting an independence referendum that has been condemned around the world as a violation of Ukrainian and international law. (TASS, Interfax)