There's actually a live feed of the talks in Minsk. Yes, really. Watch it here:
Leaders have arrived in Minsk for the Ukraine talks:
The leaders of Ukraine, Germany, and France have arrived in Minsk for a four-way summit aimed at ending 10 months of conflict in eastern Ukraine.
President Petro Poroshenko, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and President Francois Hollande touched down in the Belarusian capital ahead of the expected arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called the summit a "last-chance negotiation" to stop the conflict.
Prospects for a breakthrough at the meeting were clouded by continued fighting and conflicting interests in a war that has killed more than 5,350 people since April and sparked the tensest standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the meeting "offers a glimmer of hope, but nothing more."
Seibert said it was "uncertain whether an outcome can be reached, but despite all the uncertainty, it is worth trying in the interest of the suffering people in eastern Ukraine."
Will Russia inspire others to undertake "hybrid warfare"?
The International Institute for Strategic Studies warns that Russia's apparent use of covert and other nontraditional techniques in Ukraine highlights the need for NATO to prepare for "hybrid warfare."
In a new report released on February 11, the London-based think tank warns that Russia's destabilizing actions in Ukraine could inspire the alliance's potential state and nonstate adversaries elsewhere in the world.
The London-based group says Russia’s application of "hybrid warfare" in Ukraine includes "sophisticated campaigns that combine low-level conventional and special operations; offensive cyber and space actions; and psychological operations that use social and traditional media to influence popular perception and international opinion."
These tactics, the document says, represent a "grave threat" because most armies around the world, including within NATO, are ill-prepared for such tactics.
U.S. European commander: Russia involved in eastern Ukraine:
The top U.S. military commander in Europe reportedly says Russian forces are directly involved in the fighting in eastern Ukraine and have massed troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Reuters quoted Lieutenant General Ben Hodges as saying on February 11 that Russian troops were involved along with pro-Russian separatist forces fighting Ukraine forces near the town of Debaltseve.
Hodges, on a visit to a NATO base in the Polish city of Szczecin, said the type of equipment and amount of ammunition made it obvious that there is "direct Russian military intervention."
He added that Russia had put 10 battalions of troops near its border with Ukraine.
A battalion can consist of between 300 and 800 soldiers.
Hodges also said the U.S. Army will provide training to Ukrainian troops, who have been battling the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since April.
He said the training, which will begin next month, will include teaching how to operate when "the Russians are jamming [communications]" and how to "protect [themselves] from Russian and rebel artillery." (Reuters)