A headline for a popular current events program on Russia's Channel One claimed that Vladimir Putin could destroy NATO with a phone call. And Twitter users have been giggling ever since.
Tickling Twitter's Funnybone: Putin Can Destroy NATO With What?
Here's more via Amnesty International's statement announcing the report:
An Amnesty International researcher on the ground in eastern Ukraine has gathered gruesome evidence of civilian deaths and casualties inflicted by both sides in the bloody conflict in the towns of Donestk and Debaltseve over the last few days.
The evidence was collected on the spot in the immediate aftermath of shelling and includes interviews with eyewitnesses and casualties in hospital.
The reported violations include an attack on a humanitarian aid line, a market place in Donestk and indiscriminate shelling of homes and streets in Debaltseve.
“This evidence reveals the horror of the bloodshed suffered by civilians, who are being killed and injured because both sides are firing unguided rockets and mortars in heavily populated areas. Such attacks are a violation of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.
The recent serious upsurge in fighting in several areas of eastern Ukraine, including in rebel-held Donetsk and government-held Debaltseve, has inflicted a high cost on the civilian population. More than 25 civilians have been killed in eastern Ukraine since Thursday.
Around 90 minutes from now (2:00 p.m. Eastern Time), the Atlantic Council is live-streaming the presentation of a report by "eight distinguished US foreign policy scholars and former practitioners" titled: Preserving Ukraine’s Independence, Resisting Russian Aggression: What The United States And NATO Must Do. Should last about 90 minutes.
Our Ukrainian Service's political cartoonist at work:
From Washington correspondent Carl Schreck, including comments from U.S. official suggesting Moscow is pushing a "revisionist narrative of the crisis in Ukraine":
Lavrov Claims Obama's Remarks Prove U.S. Backed Ukraine 'Coup'
Russia has seized on remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama about an internationally-brokered deal to resolve last year's Ukrainian crisis, claiming they prove that Washington was involved in a "coup" against Ukraine's Moscow-backed president.
In a CNN interview broadcast on February 1, Obama said he thinks Russia has been interfering in Ukraine partly because President Vladimir Putin was "caught off balance" by embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych "fleeing after we had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine."
Speaking in Beijing on February 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Obama's remarks were "proof that from the very beginning, the United States was involved in the anti-government coup that Obama neutrally described as a 'power transition'."
Lavrov did not explain how Obama's remarks proved his claims.
In Washington, the Obama administration reacted to Lavrov's statement on February 2 by saying that Russia is pushing a “revisionist narrative of the crisis in Ukraine” that is “deeply troubling, but utterly unconvincing.”
A senior administration official told RFE/RL that Obama’s remarks referred to U.S. efforts to help resolve the crisis in the run-up to a February 21, 2014 deal signed by Yanukovych and what was then Ukraine's opposition.
The agreement, brokered by three EU diplomats, called for the creation of a national unity government, a presidential election by December 2014, and a return to an earlier Ukrainian constitution that would have curtailed Yanukovych’s powers.
The official said the United States worked with Yanukovych's government, Ukraine's opposition, and “other stakeholders to reach an agreement to put Ukraine back on track toward fulfilling the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for democracy, respect for human rights, European integration and long-term economic growth.”
The official said: “This effort included not just the United States but Russian and European government representatives as well."
On the day the agreement was signed, the White House said Obama and Putin had spoken by telephone and “exchanged views on the need to implement quickly the political agreement reached" in Kyiv.
Yanukovych, who had triggered mass protests in Kyiv by refusing to sign an EU association agreement in November 2013, abandoned power and fled to Russia shortly after signing the February 21 deal.
Russian state-controlled media on February 2 echoed Lavrov’s interpretation of Obama's remarks in the CNN interview.
The RIA-Novosti news agency covered the story in Russian with the headline “Obama Announced That The United States Helped Change Power In Ukraine.”
Russia's state-owned English-language news agency Sputnik ran the headline “Obama Admits U.S. Role In 2014 Ukraine Coup.”
But Obama's administration responded to those claims by saying: “The Russian leadership has repeatedly attempted to shift blame for the crisis in Ukraine away from its own policies.”
Russia has repeatedly accused the West of sponsoring Yanukovych’s ouster.
The United States, the EU, NATO, and the current government in Ukraine accuse Moscow of backing pro-Russian separatists with troops and heavy weaponry for their battle against government forces in eastern Ukraine where the war has killed more than 5,100 people since April.