Our Ukrainian Service's political cartoonist at work:
From Washington correspondent Carl Schreck, including comments from U.S. official suggesting Moscow is pushing a "revisionist narrative of the crisis in Ukraine":
Lavrov Claims Obama's Remarks Prove U.S. Backed Ukraine 'Coup'
Russia has seized on remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama about an internationally-brokered deal to resolve last year's Ukrainian crisis, claiming they prove that Washington was involved in a "coup" against Ukraine's Moscow-backed president.
In a CNN interview broadcast on February 1, Obama said he thinks Russia has been interfering in Ukraine partly 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."
Speaking in Beijing on February 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei 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.
In Washington, the Obama administration reacted to Lavrov's statement on February 2 by saying that Russia is pushing a “revisionist narrative of the crisis in Ukraine” that is “deeply troubling, but utterly unconvincing.”
A senior administration official told RFE/RL that Obama’s remarks referred to U.S. efforts to help resolve the crisis in the run-up to a February 21, 2014 deal signed by Yanukovych and what was then Ukraine's opposition.
The agreement, brokered by three EU diplomats, called for the creation of a national unity government, a presidential election by December 2014, and a return to an earlier Ukrainian constitution that would have curtailed Yanukovych’s powers.
The official said the United States worked with Yanukovych's government, Ukraine's opposition, and “other stakeholders to reach an agreement to put Ukraine back on track toward fulfilling the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for democracy, respect for human rights, European integration and long-term economic growth.”
The official said: “This effort included not just the United States but Russian and European government representatives as well."
On the day the agreement was signed, the White House said Obama and Putin had spoken by telephone and “exchanged views on the need to implement quickly the political agreement reached" in Kyiv.
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 February 21 deal.
Russian state-controlled media on February 2 echoed Lavrov’s interpretation of Obama's remarks in the CNN interview.
The RIA-Novosti news agency covered the story in Russian with the headline “Obama Announced That The United States Helped Change Power In Ukraine.”
Russia's state-owned English-language news agency Sputnik ran the headline “Obama Admits U.S. Role In 2014 Ukraine Coup.”
But Obama's administration responded to those claims by saying: “The Russian leadership has repeatedly attempted to shift blame for the crisis in Ukraine away from its own policies.”
Russia has repeatedly accused the West of sponsoring Yanukovych’s ouster.
The United States, the EU, NATO, and the current government in Ukraine accuse Moscow of backing pro-Russian separatists with troops and heavy weaponry for their battle against government forces in eastern Ukraine where the war has killed more than 5,100 people since April.
Also from our newsroom:
A Russian nongovernmental group is raising concerns that Russian conscripts are being forced to sign contracts that could result in their being sent to fight in Ukraine.
The Soldiers' Mothers group says it has received more than 20 such complaints from the parents of Russian army conscripts in December 2014 alone.
Parents said that after signing the contracts, their sons were sent to a military base in Rostov near the border with eastern Ukraine.
The Soldiers' Mothers group has asked human rights ombudsman Ella Pamfilova to investigate the allegations.
The group, which campaigns for the rights of conscripts and other Russian soldiers, estimates about 500 Russian soldiers have been killed in eastern Ukraine's conflict.
It is researching an increase in deaths of Russian soldiers based ouyt of Rostov since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014.
It also is investigating reports that Russian soldiers killed in eastern Ukraine are being secretly buried or cremated.
The Kremlin denies sending Russian troops into eastern Ukraine.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson speaking at the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee in Brussels today.
"One big cloud is of course the growing problems from the Ukraine crisis. I cannot hide from you that the international atmosphere has been hurt by this, that the ghost of the Cold War seems to be crawling out of the shadow. I hope to God that there will be efforts made to limit the damage. We have enough of damage of course in the lack of trust that is so evident in the case of the crisis itself here in Europe. But it is also a risk that this could spread into other areas. We need the cooperation between major power in the Syria situation for instance, not to speak of the importance of the P5+1 negotiations going on with Iran."
"I can only point to the fact that we need in this case on Ukraine to be very firm on principles of international law, [let's be] absolutely clear on that. At the same time of course everything needs to be done so that we don't have an escalation that can turn into catastrophic dimensions."
"You may know that I visited Ukraine in the beginning of March at a crucial stage of the crisis before the events in Crimea and the [UN] secretary-general has been in frequent contact with the leadership of both the Russian Federation and of Ukraine and we are more than willing to play that role. If there is a need for good offices that is recognized by the parties and from other important actors in Europe and elsewhere we are willing to play that role."
"We will of course be active on the humanitarian front where we already have a huge program and a growing program unfortunately and of course with human rights monitoring, which we will continue to do."
"I would say this shows the limitations in some situations in which the United Nations find itself when we don't have a joint [UN] Security Council action and direction given."