The Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg has asked Russia's human rights ombudsman to look into complaints by conscripts that they are being forced to sign transfers to Rostov, near the Ukrainian border, presumably then to be sent to fight in Ukraine, our Russian Service reports (in Russian).
The Brooking Institution comes out in favor of arming Ukraine:
Recommendations
• The White House and Congress should commit serious funds to upgrade Ukraine’s defense capabilities, specifically providing $1 billion in military assistance this year, followed by an additional $1 billion each in the next two fiscal years;
• The U.S. government should alter its policy and begin providing lethal assistance to Ukraine’s military and;
• The U.S. government should approach other NATO countries about also providing military assistance to Ukraine.
Fighting continues to rage in Ukraine following the collapse of cease-fire talks:
Ukraine says that five of its soldiers have been killed and 29 others wounded in the past 24 hours in fighting against pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said on February 2 that fighting remained most intense around the government-controlled town of Debaltseve.
Separatists who hold parts of both regions said 11 civilians had been killed in the same time period, and blamed government forces.
The fighting continued after peace talks quickly collapsed on January 31.
The separatists accused Kyiv of sabotaging the talks in Minsk.
But Ukraine and the OSCE said that the rebels refused to discuss crucial points of a peace plan they signed in September and instead called for revisions that would give them control over more territory.
More than 5,100 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April. (Interfax, AP, UNIAN, Reuters)
Events were held in Ukraine on February 1 to honor the victims of a rocket attack which killed 30 civilians in the southern port of Mariupol, held by government forces, on January 24. In Kyiv, crosses with the names of the victims were placed outside the Russian embassy. In the evening, in Mariupol itself, candles were lit on the central Theater Square. The United Nations has said rockets, fired from separatist-held territory, deliberately targeted civilians in an attack violating international humanitarian law. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
LATEST: Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the leader of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's Donetsk region, has announced plans to mobilize 100,000 people for the conflict with government forces. He said mobilization will begin in 11 days. (AFP, Interfax)