From our newsroom:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claims recent remarks by President Barack Obama about an internationally-brokered deal to resolve last year's Ukrainian crisis proves Washington was involved in a "coup" against Ukraine's Moscow-backed president.
In a CNN interview broadcast on February 1, Obama said he believes Russia's interference in Ukraine has occurred in part because President Vladimir Putin was "caught off balance" by embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych "fleeing after we had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine."
Obama was clearly referring to a deal signed by Yanukovych and opposition leaders on February 21, 2014, that called for the creation of a national unity government and for a presidential election by December.
Yanukovych, who had triggered mass protests in Kyiv by refusing to sign an EU association agreement in November 2013, abandoned power and fled to Russia shortly after signing the deal with the opposition.
Speaking in Beijing on February 2, Lavrov said Obama's remarks were "proof that from the very beginning, the United States was involved in the anti-government coup that Obama neutrally described as a 'power transition'."
Lavrov did not explain how Obama's remarks proved his claims.
With reporting by Interfax and sputniknews.com
And this tidbit:
About a quarter of Russians (26 percent) say that there is a "rather high probability" that Russia will launch military activity in the region. Another 10 percent is "convinced that a war between the countries is already under way."
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A headline for a popular current events program on Russia's Channel One claimed that Vladimir Putin could destroy NATO with a phone call. And Twitter users have been giggling ever since.
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Here's more via Amnesty International's statement announcing the report:
An Amnesty International researcher on the ground in eastern Ukraine has gathered gruesome evidence of civilian deaths and casualties inflicted by both sides in the bloody conflict in the towns of Donestk and Debaltseve over the last few days.
The evidence was collected on the spot in the immediate aftermath of shelling and includes interviews with eyewitnesses and casualties in hospital.
The reported violations include an attack on a humanitarian aid line, a market place in Donestk and indiscriminate shelling of homes and streets in Debaltseve.
“This evidence reveals the horror of the bloodshed suffered by civilians, who are being killed and injured because both sides are firing unguided rockets and mortars in heavily populated areas. Such attacks are a violation of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.
The recent serious upsurge in fighting in several areas of eastern Ukraine, including in rebel-held Donetsk and government-held Debaltseve, has inflicted a high cost on the civilian population. More than 25 civilians have been killed in eastern Ukraine since Thursday.
Around 90 minutes from now (2:00 p.m. Eastern Time), the Atlantic Council is live-streaming the presentation of a report by "eight distinguished US foreign policy scholars and former practitioners" titled: Preserving Ukraine’s Independence, Resisting Russian Aggression: What The United States And NATO Must Do. Should last about 90 minutes.