Ukrainian presidential aide Yuriy Biryukov said government forces were able to evacuate 23 wounded soldiers and the bodies of three dead soldiers from the Donetsk airport area on Saturday, amid reports of heavy fighting and claims by pro-Russian forces that they controlled the entire facility.
That concludes our live blogging for Saturday, January 17.
Nadia Savchenko lawyer Mark Feigin says he is checking on reports that the Ukrainian pilot being held by Russian authorities -- and who has been on a hunger strike for the past month -- has been transferred to "sailor's silence" section for confinement. He also wonders aloud why Savchenko's legal team would only receive such news via mass media.
He quotes LifeNews as the source:
Savchenko's health was said on Friday to have been "deteriorating."
The Economist says of Ukraine's economy "On The Edge":
Default would sap domestic confidence in Ukraine’s leadership and roil the currency markets again. George Soros, a financier, is arguing for aid before reforms and promoting a $50 billion package. Such a sum has little chance of being found, but he raises a big question about Ukraine’s importance. A Ukrainian collapse would prove Mr Putin’s contention that Western promises mean little and that change in the post-Soviet world leads only to pain. The West may soon have to decide: what is Ukraine worth?