And here's a sanctions update from RFE/RL's news desk:
French President Francois Hollande has said he wants Western sanctions on Russia to be lifted if Moscow respects Ukraine's sovereignty.
In an interview with French radio on January 5, Hollande called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity, to stop supporting pro-Russian separatists in the country's east, and to allow Kyiv to develop economic relations with the West.
Hollande also said Putin "doesn't want to annex eastern Ukraine, he told me that."
Meanwhile, Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told a German newspaper on January 4 that some "forces" in Europe and the United States wanted sanctions to cripple Russia, which would "risk a conflagration."
"We want to help get the Ukraine conflict resolved, but not to push Russia to its knees," he added.
The European Union, United States, and other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in March and its support for the separatists, whose conflict with government troops has killed more than 4,700 people in eastern Ukraine since April.
(Reuters, AFP)
Here's an update from our news desk:
France, Germany, and Ukraine have cast doubt on whether a four-way summit on the Ukraine conflict will be held on January 15 in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on January 5 that the planned meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France "only makes sense" if progress is made on "the full implementation" of a September 5 accord on a cease-fire.
French President Francois Hollande said he would travel to Astana if there is "a possibility of making new progress."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the talks would take place if "we manage to produce a draft [of an] agreed document" before January 15.
The comments came as representatives of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany met in Berlin to discuss efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have been battling pro-Russian separatists since April.
(Reuters, TASS, RIA Novosti, Interfax)
Here's today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
Why would the CIA work to overthrow the Ukrainian government? “The US cannot tolerate the idea of any rival economic entity,” Stone writes. Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a European Union trade agreement led to the protests that ultimately brought about his political demise. Installing a pro-Western government in Kiev to replace him, Stone presumably believes, frustrates Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union, a crude imitation of the EU comprised of corrupt, ex-Soviet autocracies. Let’s accept, for the sake of argument, Stone’s premise that the enfeebling of potential economic competitors is the ultimate driver of American foreign policy decision-making. Russia’s GDP is roughly the size of Italy’s and it’s backwards economy is almost entirely dependent on the price of a single, finite commodity: oil. Nearly every economic and social barometer, from the birthrate to life expectancy, paints a country in steep and irreversible decline. Unlike the Soviet Union at a certain period in history, the Russian economy does not hold a candle to that of the United States. Accusing his opponents of being locked in a Cold War mindset, it is Stone who is beholden to old orthodoxies. Moreover, how does shouldering the burden of a corrupt, economic basket case of a country like Ukraine strengthen American financial hegemony? Since Yanukovych left office, an unending stream of Ukrainian politicians has begged the West for tens of billions of dollars in bailouts.
WATCH: Ivan, a novice monk, was inspired by the experiences of wounded fighters to leave the safety of his monastery and join a volunteer paramilitary battalion in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Now training with his unit for potential combat, Ivan believes the church stands behind his decision. (Produced by Askold Sirko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
