RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak has just sent us this item:
European Union ambassadors have agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months over its role in the Ukraine conflict.
The agreement on December 18 means sanctions will stay in place until July 31, 2016 against Russia's financial, oil, and military sectors-- as well as against specific individuals linked to the Ukraine conflict.
The recommendation by EU ambassadors faces a final, formal ratification process at noon Central Euuropean time on December 21.
The sanctions were first imposed in July and September 2014 in response to the annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by the Kremlin and Moscow’s support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Without an extension, the existing sanctions would expire on January 31.
(With additional reporting by AP and AFP)
Here's some more details from our news desk on how the Kremlin appears to be backtracking on Vladimir Putin's apparent admission that there are Russian military personnel in eastern Ukraine:
The Kremlin is accusing NATO and Ukraine of "misinterpreting" a remark made by President Vladimir Putin about the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking about the conflict in eastern Ukraine on December 17, Putin said: “We have never said that there are no people there involved in resolving some certain issues, including those related to the military sphere. But this does not mean that there are regular Russian troops there. Feel the difference."
Many -- including Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg -- interpreted Putin's words as an admission that Russia sent military personnel into eastern Ukraine to support pro-Russian separatists.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on December 18 that Putin was referring to Russian volunteers fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels.
Peskov reiterated Moscow's claim, despite widespread evidence to the contrary, that there are not active Russian military personnel in eastern Ukraine.
(AP, Interfax)