Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this development that happened overnight (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Separatist Commander 'Givi' Killed In Eastern Ukraine
KYIV -- A separatist commander in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk has been assassinated, the Russia-backed separatists say.
Mikhail Tolstykh, better known by his nom de guerre Givi, died after a bomb exploded in his office in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk just after 6 a.m. local time on February 8, de facto separatist authorities and a source with ties to its military told RFE/RL by phone.
Donetsk separatists have called the killing "a continuation of the terrorist war launched by the Kyiv authorities" against the residents of eastern Ukraine, according to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. They said an investigative team was working at the bomb site.
Givi was leading the Somali battalion and made a name for himself in the brutal battle for Donetsk airport.
Video footage from 2015 shows him verbally and physically abusing Ukrainian servicemen captured during the battle.
Another separatist commander -- Arseny Pavlov, who was better known by the nickname Motorola -- died on October 16 when a bomb exploded in an elevator in his apartment block in Donetsk.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,750 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
With reporting by RIA
We are now closing the live blog for today, but we will be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.