Mediator says warring sides agree to pull back heavy weapons:
An international mediator says Ukraine's warring sides have agreed to withdraw heavy weapons from the front line by February 20 in line with the Minsk peace plan.
Martin Sajdik, the lead negotiator on the Ukraine crisis for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said on February 15 that Ukraine, Russia, and the Russia-backed separatists all agreed to the move after a fresh round of talks in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
The agreement comes after a surge in violence earlier this month left several dozen people dead around the town of Avdiyivka.
Under the 2015 Minsk peace plan, the warring parties are supposed to withdraw their big guns to create a buffer zone along the front line.
The Minsk agreement has been repeatedly violated by both sides and no progress has been made toward a political resolution of the conflict in the two years since it was signed.
The conflict has cost more than 9,750 lives since 2014. (AFP, TASS, Interfax)
SBU says Russian hackers targeting power grid, financial system:
Ukraine has accused Russian hackers of targeting its power grid, financial system, and other infrastructure with thousands of attacks and a new type of virus that attacks industrial processes.
Oleksandr Tkachuk, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) chief, said on February 15 that the attacks were orchestrated by the Russian security service with help from criminal hackers, and looked like they were designed by the same people who created malware known as "BlackEnergy."
Ukraine blamed hackers using BlackEnergy for knocking out part of Kyiv's power grid in December 2015, and for attacks last year on the Defense and Finance ministries and the State Treasury.
"Russian hackers and infobots become an important tool of the aggression against our country," Tkachuk said.
The latest attacks employed a mechanism dubbed "Telebots" to infect computers that control infrastructure, he said.
Moscow has repeatedly denied it is waging a "cyberwar" on Ukraine.
Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET said it believes the Telebots evolved from the BlackEnergy hacking effort.
Separately on February 15, cybersecurity firm CyberX said that it had uncovered an espionage operation in Ukraine that had compromised more than 60 victims, including the Energy Ministry and a scientific research institute. (AFP, Reuters)
This ends our live blogging for February 15. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Kyiv declares state of emergency for energy sector, rolling blackouts possible:
Ukraine has declared a state of emergency for its energy sector that could lead to rolling blackouts as officials try to dramatically reduce electricity consumption across the country.
The February 15 decision was made at a cabinet meeting in Kyiv focusing on how to respond to a two-week strike by far-right protesters who have blocked a rail line between coal-producing eastern regions and the rest of Ukraine.
Energy Minister Ihor Nasalyk called on all residents and industries to immediately try to save electricity.
He warned that conservation efforts may not be enough, saying the government "will implement rolling blackouts" if the energy savings are insufficient.
To fuel the country's power plants, Kyiv continues to buy a specific type of coal produced only in eastern regions controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
The exchange of goods has gone on despite a 34-month conflict in the east between separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 9,750 people.
Protesters say Kyiv shouldn't be trading with the separatists. (AFP, TASS)