From our Brussels correspondent @RikardJozwiak, a statement from EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini's spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, at a news briefing in Brussels on a rocket attack on a passenger bus in eastern Ukraine and intensified fighting around the Donetsk airport.
"Our thoughts are with the families of those who died. But what this also underlines is that there is a need for a strict observation of the cease-fire that was put in place with the Minsk protocol and implementation memorandum already in September. A lasting cease-fire remains key to the success of current still ongoing efforts to reach a sustainable political solution to the crisis in Ukraine based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and we as the European Union are supporting those efforts."
From our newsroom, based on a live broadcast:
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has urged Russia to withdraw support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and use "all its influence" to prompt them to respect a cease-fire deal agreed on September 5 in Minsk.
Stoltenberg, speaking at a news conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on January 14, said the alliance wants "cooperation not confrontation" with Russia, but that if ties are to be improved "Russia must want it" as well.
Stoltenberg also said that Ukraine's recent abandonment of nonaligned status is "the beginning of a process which may end in an application for membership" in NATO.
He said that if Ukraine does seek to join NATO it must first fulfill the main criteria for membership -- the existence of a democratic, open society and the capacity to contribute to the collective security of the alliance.
From our newsroom:
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says the central bank has all the tools it needs to secure the stability of the ruble, which has fallen to its lowest rate against the dollar since mid-December.
Russia's national currency was trading at around 66 to the U.S. dollar and about 77.5 to the euro on January 14.
Medvedev said at the Yegor Gaidar Forum in Moscow on January 14 that the central bank will not "eat up" the country's foreign currency reserves.
The central bank spent some $76 billion to prop up the ruble last year, sending its reserves to less than $400 billion for the first time since 2010.
Falling global oil prices and Western financial sanctions against Russian individuals and entities over the Kremlin's interference in Ukraine have hit the ruble, which has lost about half its value against the dollar in the past year. (Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg, and Interfax)
Bizarre marriage under the "Donetsk People's Republic" flag.