Good morning. Here's a few things that caught our eye overnight:
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
There was an interesting report by Andrew E. Kramer in The New York Times today on how OSCE observers are missing most of the war in eastern Ukraine by only working during the day. Here's an excerpt:
This improbable routine between soldiers and monitors with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe plays out nightly, illustrating the glum quagmire of the Ukraine war, now entering its third year.
“I never see them here at night,” said Tatyana Petrova, whose apartment looks over a parking lot that is a frequent listening post for the monitors. “In the evening, I look out and they are gone, and then the concert starts.”
Avdiivka, a warren of back streets eerily overgrown with years of untended vegetation, is the most troubled flash point along the so-called line of control separating Russian-backed separatists from the Ukrainian Army.
The unarmed monitors, mostly European diplomats seconded to the mission, are empowered to listen for cease-fire violations, escort humanitarian aid and negotiate local truces. But they patrol only during the daytime.
This adherence to bankers’ hours and other signs of weakness in their mandate are doing little to help end the only active war in Europe, at a time when the Continent’s security is already unraveling from terrorism and tensions over migration.
Read the entire article here