Here is a map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine today, as issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click map to enlarge):
Here's a follow-up from our news desk on the release in Ukraine of a man accused of plotting to kill Vladimir Putin:
A Russian lawmaker says a Ukrainian court's November 18 decision to release a suspect in an alleged plot to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin is politically motivated.
Frants Klintsevich, first deputy leader of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, said hours after the court's ruling that the decision of the court in the Black Sea port city of Odesa was "anti-Russian."
The court sentenced Adam Osmayev to time served -- about two years and nine months -- after convicting him of illegal explosives possession, damaging private property, and forgery.
But amid tensions between Moscow and Kyiv over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, authorities dropped the attempted assassination charge against Osmayev last month.
Osmayev, an ethnic Chechen, was arrested in February 2012 after his associate, Kazakh citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was injured in the accidental explosion of a handmade bomb in Odesa. The blast killed a third man.
(UNIAN, Interfax)
Here's another update from RFE/RL's news desk on the latest from Putin regarding sanctions against Russia:
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Western countries have "lost Russia's food market" by launching sanctions against his country.
Talking at the televised "Forum of Action" -- a session of the All-Russia Popular Front (ONF) political movement led by the ruling United Russia party, Putin said, "We, indeed, have benefitted from some incorrect behavior of our partners, who had been well-established in Russia's agriculture sector."
Putin said the sanctions introduced against Russia had given new impetus to the development of domestic industries, which are now being called upon to compensate for the loss of foreign imports.
Putin added that the move "gave us moral, and I think, judicial right to introduce responsive sanctions."
Putin initiated the creation of the ONF in 2011.
The organization was turned into a political movement in June last year.