Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk speaking at a cabinet meeting in Kyiv today on efforts to diversify the country's gas supplies:
"Donations for Russia have ended. We work under market conditions only, and we fulfill our contract obligations. Let them have the discounts for themselves in Russia. There is a market price. Then please, we buy [gas] primarily from our European partners at market price.
"According to the results of the previous year, we buy 67 percent of gas from the European Union and only 33 percent from Russia. I demand a further step-by-step reduction of Russian gas in Ukrainian energy balance. It is more profitable and effective."
Reuters video of the scene as at least three people were killed and several more injured when shells hit a clinic in the separatist-held city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, today. Russian-backed separatists blamed Ukrainian government forces for the attack, although this could not be independently verified. The deaths came a day after the UN said the death toll in Ukraine now "exceeded" 5,358 people.
Svetlana Davydova, the Russian mother of seven accused of treason for allegedly reporting to the Ukrainian Embassy about possible Russian troop movements and released on Tuesday from a Moscow prison, speaking to Reuters in Vyazma.
"I felt that I was going to see my family finally. I can even say I cried because to be without my little baby for so long, not being able to hug my little ones, this is such stress. This is hell actually that you are isolated from society and cannot call or communicate at all with your loved ones. And you know nothing about how they are doing. This is just horrible."
The eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltseve has been under siege for weeks as military forces trade fire with pro-Russian separatists. Civilians are taking shelter in their basements as shells land close by. With little hope of a cease-fire, many residents are fleeing the town with the help of military servicemen and volunteers. Petr Shelomovskiy filed this collection of images for RFE/RL's Current Time TV program.
Tearful Good-byes As Residents Evacuate Ukrainian Town
European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic speaking today at the EU Commission daily briefing on Russia's decision to scrap the South Stream project and instead build pipelines to Turkey:
"When I was Moscow, when we discussed this issue I think the arguments I heard most often was that the primary reasoning for this decision was to bypass or avoid Ukraine.
"The reasoning for that was that Ukraine was the reason for different kind of stoppages of gas supply in previous times and that huge investments were needed for the renovation of the gas transportation system and gas storage in Ukraine and these were the reasons which were presented to me.
"Of course I didn't agree [with them] because I was informing the Russian counterpart that Ukraine was fully aware of the need for energy reform. Ukrainian representatives were fully aware of the need to restructure, modernize Naftohaz which is the major Ukrainian energy gas company and I was also arguing by the fact that through this route historically it was more than 100 billion cubic meters [of gas] which was shipped from Russia to Central and Western Europe and it just simply would not viable that like this you can change everything.
"I was arguing also with the fact that the European Union and the international financial institutions are going to help Ukraine to modernize the energy system, to renovate the gas transmission systems so really such a radical change would definitely not be economical."