From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Russia says its long-range bombers will continue patrolling various parts of the world in the future and may extend the flights into additional regions.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on March 2, "Such flights are performed regularly, and we are not planning to abandon this practice."
Shoigu added that Russia will "explore new combat patrolling areas in the future" for its strategic bombers, taking into account "international cooperation with our allies in other regions of the world."
He also said Russia will modernize 13 strategic -- or long-range -- aircraft this year.
By 2020, he said, some 70 percent of the fleet would be modernized.
NATO-member country planes have intercepted Russian aircraft many times in the past year amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's interferemce in Ukraine.
Russia has also staged a series of drills that have alarmed its post-Soviet neighbors and the West.
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
By RFE/RL
A lawyer for Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who was detained in Moscow on March 1, says that a court hearing for his client has been canceled and he will return to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Lawyer Mark Feigin said on March 2 that his client would leave for Kyiv "on the first available flight."
Honcharenko was detained ahead of a march in memory of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on February 27.
Honcharenko says he was beaten and spent five hours in police custody before release.
He had been ordered to appear in court on March 2 for a hearing on suspicion of refusing to comply with police demands, but Moscow police said earlier in the day that they had "no claims" against him.
The Russian Investigative Committee had said Honcharenko was being questioned about what Russian authorities say was his alleged involvement in a deadly fire that broke out in his home city, Odesa, during rival demonstrations by Ukrainians and pro-Russian separatists.
BREAKING: U.S. Secretary of John Kerry says the United States hopes the Ukraine cease-fire agreement will be implemented fully "in the next hours, certainly not more than days."
BREAKING: Kerry says after talks in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the cease-fire agreement for eastern Ukraine must be implemented rather than being "a road to disappointment, potential deception, and further violence."
So Honcharenko has definitely returned to Ukraine:
A lawyer for Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who was detained in Moscow on March 1, says his client has returned to Ukraine.
Lawyer Mark Feigin said March 2 that his client was freed after police dropped claims against Honcharenko.
Honcharenko was detained ahead of a march in memory of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on February 27.
Honcharenko said he was beaten and spent five hours in police custody before being released.
He had been ordered to appear in court on March 2 for a hearing on suspicion of refusing to comply with police demands before his release.
The Russian Investigative Committee said Honcharenko was being questioned about what Russian authorities said was his alleged involvement in a deadly fire that broke out in his home city, Odesa, during rival demonstrations by Ukrainians and pro-Russian separatists.
Latest from our news desk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has awarded the country's highest national honor to pilot Nadia Savchenko.
Savchenko was captured by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine in June and taken to Russia, where she was charged with involvement in a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists.
In a statement on March 2, Poroshenko said: "Nadia is a symbol of unbroken Ukrainian spirit and heroism, a symbol of the way one should defend and love Ukraine, a symbol of our victory."
Savchenko, who was awarded the “Gold Star of Hero of Ukraine” by Poroshenko, has been on hunger strike for 80 days.
She denies the charges against her, saying she was kidnapped and brought to Russia illegally.
Savchenko's sister, Vira, said on March 1 that her sister was "in fact in a very bad state.”