Here is the latest map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click map to enlarge):
According to this report, it seems that Kyiv will no longer allow reporters into the Donbas region without a military escort due to the "intensification of subversive groups of the enemy who prey on the Ukrainian mass media."
This is just in from our news desk:
A senior Russian official has said that Moscow believes NATO is destabilizing northern Europe by holding military exercises there and "transferring aircraft capable of carrying nuclear arms" to the Baltic states.
On December 1, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksei Meshkov told the Russian news agency Interfax: "This reality is extremely negative."
Meshkov warned that Moscow is doing everything it can "to firmly safeguard the security of Russia and its citizens ... no matter which part of our country it concerns."
At the same time, he said Russia-NATO relations have not reached the "point of no return," despite serious disagreements.
Meshkov's statement came after NATO's top military commander voiced concern that Russia might be moving nuclear capabilities to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March.
U.S. General Philip Breedlove said November 26 in Kyiv that the United States was "very concerned with the militarization of Crimea."
(Reuters, Interfax, AP)