From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Kyiv for a recent escalation of fighting in eastern Ukraine, claiming that the government was conducting "large-scale military action" against pro-Russian separatists.
Putin spoke on January 23 after a separatist leader said rebels who have taken control of the shattered airport in Donetsk vowed to take the entire Donetsk Province, much of which is still held by the government.
Putin said Ukraine had not responded to a proposal the Kremlin says he made to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier this week calling for heavy weapons to be withdrawn from a separation line.
He said that "we have seen opposite actions, namely, the Kyiv authorities have issued an official order to begin large-scale military action virtually on the entire perimeter of the contact line."
Putin said the responsibility for increased fighting lay with those who issue what he called "criminal orders," but he gave no specific evidence of such an order.
By RFE/RL
Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concern over an incident in which pro-Russian separatists paraded captive Ukrainian troops through the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
Rebel fighters accompanied by a separatist leader, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, on January 22 marched about a dozen captives to the site of a blast that hit a trolleybus and reportedly killed 13 people earlier in the day.
The prisoners were forced to kneel and subjected to verbal and physical abuse, apparently by angry residents.
Video footage showed at least one being beaten.
Amnesty International said the reports and footage were "worrying."
"Mistreatment of prisoners constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law," the London-based human rights group said in a statement on January 22.
The incident followed increased fighting that has further clouded the prospects for an end to a conflict that has killed more than 4,800 people since April.
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council:
