Here's an item from our news desk:
NATO Chief Urges Continued Pressure On Russia Over Ukraine
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for continued diplomatic pressure and sanctions on Russia until Moscow respects a February 2015 agreement aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict.
"The international community must keep pressuring Russia to respect its obligations, especially while the security situation in eastern Ukraine remains so serious," Stoltenberg said after talks with NATO and Ukraine foreign ministers in Brussels on December 7.
"It's important that economic sanctions be maintained," he added.
Separately, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he expected EU leaders to prolong sanctions on Russia when they meet in Brussels next week.
Stoltenberg said there was a "massive increase in cease-fire violations" in Ukraine’s east, where fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,600 people since April 2014.
He said hundreds of explosions are sometimes reported daily, including many caused by heavy weapons banned under the Minsk peace accords.
Last week, a meeting of foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany intended to shore up the peace process ended without any new breakthrough.
Based on reporting by AP and AFP
From Ukraine's ambassador to Austria:
A tweet from the account of NATO's spokeswoman:
Here's an excerpt from this BBC story
Viktor Plakhuta couldn't take the corruption in Ukraine's defense sector any longer.
A former financial services worker, he was part of a wave of young, idealistic Ukrainians who entered government after the country's 2014 pro-Western revolution.
He joined the department responsible for military procurement and reform in the ministry of economic development and trade.
But after 10 months there he resigned, angry at what he said was widespread corruption and a lack of will to do anything about it.
"In the department, I was just carrying out tasks that fulfilled other people's personal interests and corruption," he said.
According to him, defense contracts were regularly inflated or given to insiders, and those who benefited reached the highest levels of power.
Yet the conflict with pro-Russian rebels in the east has made Ukraine's military competence a vital national issue.
You can find the entire article here.
Good morning. As we often do, we'll start the live blog today with a few of the things that caught our eye overnight:
And here's a tweet from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman: