Latest on Ukraine's economy:
The Ukrainian government said on March 5 the country's economy "will shrink this year and consumer prices will jump" due to the effects of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
A statement posted on the government's website said GDP could fall by as much as 11.9 percent this year in a "worst-case scenario" and that year-end inflation could accelerate to 42.8 percent.
The figures are significantly worse than the 2015 economic forecast the Ukrainian gave in September when it forecast GDP growth of 0.3 percent and year-end inflation not exceeding 9.8 percent.
Alexander Valchysen, the head of research at the Kyiv-based Investment Company of Ukraine, said "realism is winning within the walls of the government" and the government's new figures were "a good signal that Ukrainian authorities tending to consolidate amid economic challenges and understand there is no chance to suspend reforms."
Reuters exclusive: Scribbled note shows Nemtsov on trail of Russian deaths in Ukraine
"Some paratroopers from Ivanovo have got in touch with me. 17 killed, they didn't give them their money, but for now they are frightened to talk," said the note, shown to Reuters by Shorina.
"He did not want to say anything, just in case. He did not want to utter it out loud, which is why he wrote it down for me," she said.
Speaking earlier, NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow also said that Putin's "aim seems to be to turn Ukraine into a failed state and to suppress and discredit alternative voices in Russia, so as to prevent a Russian 'Maidan.'"
Alexander Stubb thinks Finland could consider NATO membership:
Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said March 5 that Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer-long border with Russia, should not rule out the possibility of seeking membership of NATO over the next four years.
Finland is one of the countries in the Baltic region to have reported incursions by Russian military aircraft that have stepped up activity recently.
Stubb told a joint news conference with NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, "I think that it is very important that we -- during the span of the next government -- do not exclude the possibility of seeking NATO membership."
Finland faces a general election on April 19. An electoral term in Finland is four years.
He said if EU member Finland were to seek membership someday, it would have to have public endorsement.
A poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat newspaper on Thursday showed that support for joining NATO remained low at 27 percent, while 57 percent opposed membership.
Meanwhile in Crimea:
Russian border guards in the illegally annexed Ukrainian territory of Crimea claim they have apprehended a suspect in the 2002 hostage-taking incident at Moscow's Dubrovka Theater.
The press service for the Crimean branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) border guards announced March 5 it has "succeeded in exposing a terrorist who took part in the taking of hostages during the musical 'Nord-Ost' in 2002."
The press service did not say when the suspect was caught but in December there were reports Khasan Zakaev was detained on suspicion of being involved in the Dubrovka Theater siege.
On October 22, 2002, a group of Chechen militants interrupted the performance at the Dubrovka Theater and took the audience hostage.
All the hostage-takers inside the theater were killed when Russian special forces stormed the building on October 26.
Some 130 hostages died, many due to negligent medical care they received after they were evacuated from the theater.
It was unclear from the border guard press service's report how the suspect was involved in the theater incident.
More on Savchenko:
A lawyer for Nadia Savchenko says the jailed Ukrainian military pilot has "partially" halted her hunger strike, which was in its 83rd day on March 5.
Attorney Mark Feigin posted a handwritten letter from Savchenko on Twitter in which she wrote that she would now drink broth "in order to live -- and to fly."
She thanked supporters and wrote, "I will fight! Together with you!" and added: "To be able to fight, one must be strong!"
Feigin visited Savchenko in a Moscow pretrial detention center after the Russian prison service announced that she had agreed to follow doctors' recommendations.
"I confirm...a partial halt of the hunger strike," he wrote.
Savchenko says she was kidnapped by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine in June and illegally transferred to Russia, where she has been charged with complicity in the killing of two journalists who died covering the conflict.
Russia has rejected repeated Western calls for the release of Savchenko, who began a hunger strike on December 13.
Latest from our news desk:
A senior NATO official says Russian troops are dying in combat in "large numbers" in eastern Ukraine, where they have been fighting along pro-Russian rebels since last year.
NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow told a conference in the Latvian capital Riga on March 5, that Russia's involvement in eastern Ukraine is beginning to lose support among Russians, "especially as Russian leaders are less and less able to conceal the fact that Russian soldiers are fighting -- and dying -- in large numbers" in the conflict.
Moscow has flatly denied the presence of any of its troops in eastern Ukraine.
Vershbow also said that while the truce agreement reached in Minsk last month is an important step toward putting an end to the violence which has claimed more than 6,000 lives since April last year, "full implementation is key" to finding solving to the crisis.
He said Russia bears "a special responsibility" to bring about "a real de-escalation -- not a temporary pause, but a lasting solution" to the conflict.