Savchenko has been refusing food for more than a month and her lawyer says the hunger strike has taken a toll on her health.
Read Andrei Shary and Claire Bigg on the Ukrainian Air Force pilot being held in Russia.
Not so tangentially related.
Here's another update from RFE/RL's news desk:
Plans for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine were up in the air on January 16 amid persistent fighting.
Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine had been expected to meet in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on January 16.
But the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the talks would take place.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said that six soldiers had been killed and 18 wounded in the previous 24 hours.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces repelled several attempts by rebels to seize control of a terminal at the ruined international airport in Donetsk, the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.
He said the rebels had used artillery, tanks, mortars, and rockets in the offensive, and denied claims by separatists that they had taken the facility.
Lysenko said several other government positions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, whose capitals are held by the rebels, had come under fire.
Authorities in Donetsk said four people died overnight after shelling sparked a fire at a warehouse.
(Reuters, Interfax, AFP)
It seems like there's still a lot of fighting going on in Donbas, if today's map of the situation in the region from Ukraine's Security and Defense Council is anything to go by (click image to enlarge):
Here's an update from our news desk on what's happening at Donetsk airport:
Ukrainian authorities said on January 16 that six soldiers had been killed and 18 wounded in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east in the previous 24 hours.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces repelled several attempts by rebels to seize control of a terminal at the ruined international airport in Donetsk, the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.
He said the rebels had used artillery, tanks, mortars, and rockets in the offensive, and denied claims by separatists that they had taken the facility.
Lysenko said several other government positions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, whose capitals are held by the rebels, had come under fire.
Authorities in Donetsk said four people died overnight after shelling sparked a fire at a warehouse.
The fighting came amid expectations for a meeting on January 16 between representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the rebels, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Minsk.
The U.S. State Department said on January 14 that the intense fighting around the airport was among the "latest egregious violations of the commitments made by the Russian-backed separatists" under a September 5 deal on a cease-fire and steps toward peace.
(Reuters, AFP)