This very timely story is paywall protected, but here's the gist:
Logic dictates that if Russia wants to increase the pressure on Europe, it should try beyond the territory of the former Soviet Union. It is such a scenario that makes the Balkans a likely hotspot. Russia certainly does not fantasise about bringing Bosnia or Albania into its sphere of influence, and nobody in the Balkans dreams of joining the Eurasian Union. Their major trading partner is the EU -- and it is there that businesses look for investment, and would-be emigres look for new homes.
As well as being the EU's backyard, the Balkans are the underbelly of Brussels' diplomacy. Their banking systems are fragile. If businesses with large deposits and Russian connections were suddenly to pull their money out, the result could be widespread insolvency, and with it civil strife. Pro-western governments would teeter. This is the place to apply pressure, if Moscow wants to make Europeans feel uncomfortable.
From that Special Monitoring Mission report on the Volnovakha bus shelling on Tuesday that killed 12 people, which the OSCE mission was investigating:
The SMM arrived at the location of the incident at 17:45 hrs and witnessed the removal of two of the dead passengers from the bus. The bus had shrapnel damage consistent with a nearby rocket impact, estimated by the SMM to be 12-15 meters from the side of the bus. The SMM visited the Volnovakha hospital where the staff confirmed that ten persons on the bus were killed instantly, while two died later in the hospital. Another 17 passengers were injured.
Following a proposal from the SMM, the Ukrainian Major-General and Head of the Ukrainian side to the JCCC and the Russian Federation Major-General, representative of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) and the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) leadership have agreed to conduct a joint investigation led by the JCCC. In parallel, the SMM will continue its observations and establish its own findings regarding the incident.
The contract servicemen get the girls in this video that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is really, truly, actually using to try and recruit soldiers.
From our newsroom:
Russian media are quoting spokespeople for the pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine as saying they have completely captured the embattled Donetsk airport from Ukrainian forces.
There is no independent confirmation of the January 17 reports.
The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed separatist source as saying the last 20 or so Ukrainian troops were forced out of the airport during fighting overnight.
A statement on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says Ukrainian troops at the airport were shelled several times during the night.
The airport has been the scene of near-constant fighting between the two sides, despite a formal cease-fire in the conflict that has been in place since September.
The UN Security Council announced on January 16 that it will meet next week to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. It will be the council's 27th meeting about the crisis, in which more than 4,700 people have been killed.
Based on reporting by Interfax, AFP, and ITAR-TASS
Barring any major developments that ends the live blogging for today.
Latest from our news desk on the Minsk non-talks:
Pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine were leaving Minsk on January 16 after proposed negotiations with Kyiv, Moscow, and representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) fell through.
Interfax quotes Denis Pushilin, the so-called deputy chairman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, as saying that “no meetings were held in Minsk" on January 16 and a date for new talks had not been set.
The talks were expected in the Belarusian capital on January 16 with representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE, and pro-Russian separatists who are fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.
A state-run Russian news agency, Sputnik, cited the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk as saying earlier on January 16 as saying that the meeting had been cancelled.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin also said on January 16 that a date for a new round of talks has not been set.