Joe Biden has been visiting Brussels and talking about Ukraine. Our news desk has this report:
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has said Ukraine is battling for its "very survival" in the face of escalating Russian involvement in the conflict between government forces and separatists in the country's east.
Speaking on February 6 alongside European Council chief Donald Tusk in Brussels, Biden said "Russia continues to escalate the conflict by sending mercenaries and tanks."
Russia "cannot be allowed to redraw the map of Europe," he added. "This is a moment where the United States and Europe must stand together, stand firm," he said.
In Kyiv on February 5, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said "Russia's continued aggression in the east" is the gravest threat facing Ukraine today.
He also said U.S. President Barack Obama will decide soon whether to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to fight the separatists.
The comments came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande pressed forward with a new peace plan to end the Ukraine crisis.
(AFP, Reuters)
And here's another one.
This time RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service spoke to soldiers from the Dnipro-1 volunteer unit, which has come under continued attacks from pro-Russian separatists at a checkpoint near the village of Pisky, north-west of Donetsk, over the past week. Interviewed on February 3-4, the men were backed up by armor from the regular Ukrainian army. In recent weeks government forces have been pushed back by a separatist offensive in eastern Ukraine.
We have some video reports now from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
In this clip, Ukrainain soldier Yaroslav Havanets was captured by pro-Russian separatists during the long battle over Donetsk airport. His captors released him this week after his father posted a video message offering himself as a hostage in place of his son. Shortly after his release, Havanets told RFE/RL in Donetsk about the clashes at the destroyed airport, where the Ukrainian soldiers earned the nickname of "cyborgs" for their fierce fighting.
