Here's an update from RFE/RL's news desk:
The Ukrainian parliament has approved a plan to mobilize soldiers in three waves this year amid a continuing conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the country's east.
In a 268-1 vote on January 15, lawmakers endorsed a decree from President Petro Poroshenko on the plan.
The first wave of mobilization is to begin on January 20, the second in April, and the last in June.
Addressing parliament, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said Ukraine "ought to give priority to patriotic citizens who are ready to defend their country voluntarily."
He also warned of a "full-fledged continental war" if the rebels, backed by Russia, launch an attack on Ukrainian positions.
Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said last week that he hopes to recruit 104,000 soldiers by the mobilization this year.
(dpa, Interfax, TASS)
Ukraine Steps Up Mobilisation, Warns Of Renewed Russian "Aggression"
KIEV, Jan 15 (Reuters) -- Ukraine's parliament voted on Thursday to refresh its front-line forces and resume partial conscription after a top security official warned that Russian forces backing separatist rebels had sharply increased military activity in the east.
"Russian aggression is continuing. There has been a significant surge in the intensity of firing," Oleksander Turchynov, secretary of the national defence council, told parliament, adding that 8,500 Russian regular forces were now deployed in eastern Ukraine.
Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four wounded on Wednesday when Ukrainian positions were fired on 129 times, which Turchynov said was a record for this year so far.
The warning of increased military activity by Russian forces also followed the shelling of a passenger bus on Tuesday at an army checkpoint in which 12 civilians were killed. Kiev blamed the separatists for the attack but they denied responsibility.
Despite what the West and Kiev say is incontrovertible evidence, Moscow denies it has any troops in the east of Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists are fighting government forces in a conflict in which more than 4,700 people have been killed.
Ukraine's parliament supported a decree of President Petro Poroshenko to swap out long-serving troops at the front and to bring in veterans from the reserve as well as resume partial conscription.
Ukraine scrapped compulsory military call-up in 2013 before the ousting of a pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovich, which sparked the confrontation with Russia.
"There is an urgent need to strengthen the combat and mobilisation readiness of our forces and other military forces up to a level which guarantees an adequate reaction to threats to national security from continuing Russian aggression," Turchynov said.
By RFE/RL's Georgian Service
TBILISI -- Georgian authorities say a man from the South Caucasus nation has been killed fighting in eastern Ukraine.
On January 15, the Foreign Ministry confirmed earlier reports saying that a Georgian national was killed in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.
Ministry officials identified the Georgian as Shalva Bukhaidze, 30.
They did not say which side he fought on.
Reports have said that there are many volunteers from former Soviet republics fighting on both sides in the conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Last week, authorities in Tajikistan said one of its citizens was killed fighting alongside the separatists, who Kyiv and NATO say have direct military support from Russia.
In December, a court in Kazakhstan sentenced a Kazakh citizen, Yevgeny Vdovenko, to five years in prison for fighting in Luhansk, also on the side of the separatists.