An excerpt from Why Putin Is Lying About Ukraine by Leonid Bershidsky on BloombergView:
Putin...is likely to be relieved if the U.S. decides to provide military aid to Ukraine: Then, he can finally tell Russians about the war, explaining that he's fighting the meddling U.S., not impoverished and culturally close Ukraine. In fact, he is already trying out that pitch. In a meeting with students on Jan. 26, Putin described the Ukrainian armed forces as a "NATO foreign legion." As long as the West refuses to arm Ukraine, that reasoning will sound thin. But it will work much better once that barrier has fallen.
Putin's lies aren't directed at concealing the war from Russians: They know what's going on, because dead soldiers are impossible to conceal. Putin's lies are a message to the West, a signal that Russia isn't yet fully committed. They're a veiled threat, an invitation to compromise and a lever to help get Russian troops onto any eventual peacekeeping force that is called on to separate the sides.
Some recent caricatures and editorial cartoons by cartoonist Oleksiy Kustovskiy of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
From RFE/RL's news desk:
Both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine are claiming territorial gains as fighting persists amid a diplomatic push for peace.
The volunteer Azov Battalion said on social media on February 10 that it captured several villages northeast of Mariupol, pushing Russian-backed separatists away from the stratgeic Azov Sea port city.
Rebel military spokesman Eduard Basurin said late on February 9 that separatist forces have surrounded the town of Debaltseve, a transport hub, cutting it off from a major highway.
Most of Debaltseve's 25,000 residents have been evacuated.
Debaltseve has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting in a monthlong escalation of hostilities in the conflict, which has killed more than 5,350 people since April.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Stelmakh said on February 10 that there had been "an increase in attacks by the enemy on Ukrainian positions" in eastern Ukraine in the previous 24 hours.
He said seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 23 wounded.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France may meet on February 11 for talks aimed at ending the conflict.