Just in from RFE/RL's News Desk:
The UN human rights chief says more than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since it erupted in April 2014.
In a statement on March 2, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein decried the "merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure" in the war between government forces and Russian-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.
"More than 6,000 lives have now been lost in less than a year due to the fighting in eastern Ukraine," he said.
The Geneva-based UN rights body said that hundreds of civilians and military personnel were killed in recent weeks alone, after an upswing in fighting particularly near Donetsk airport and the town of Debaltseve.
Moscow denies involvement, but the UN said that "credible reports indicate a continuing flow of heavy weaponry and foreign fighters" from Russia to the separatists since December.
A sharp decrease in fighting since the rebels seized Debaltseve in mid-February has raised hopes a February 12 cease-fire deal brokered by Germany and France could hold.
UPDATE:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on March 2, amid tension over Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov's murder and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Kerry and Lavrov shook hands but made no public remarks before they began talks on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The situation in eastern Ukraine and the February 27 killing of Kremlin critic Nemtsov, in central Moscow, were expected to top discussions.
Just in:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov amid tension over Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov's murder and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
After a 20-minute meeting on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Kerry tweeted that he and Lavrov had "frank discussions" on Ukraine, Syria, and the negotiations aimed at reaching an international deal to rein in Iran's nuclear program.
Here's an excerpt:
At half past six in the morning in early September, a captain from Russia's 106th Guards Airborne Division arrived at the outskirts of a remote village in the Samara region, a triangular stretch of southern Russia between Kazakhstan and the Volga River. A local military representative picked him up at the Samara airport. The two drove through the countryside for hours, rows of birch trees giving way to flat farmland, until a signpost beside a small cemetery announced the village of Podsolnechnoye. The vehicle bounced along a rutted road, past clusters of dilapidated single-story houses, and came to a stop in front of a modest white brick home.
The captain had traveled nearly 870 miles from Rostov, on the Ukrainian border. With him was a sealed zinc coffin containing the body of a 20-year-old paratrooper named Sergei Andrianov.
Relatives were waiting to greet them outside. Andrianov's older brother and uncle stepped forward with an angle grinder. His mother, Natasha, remained inside. "I was hoping there was a mistake," she said. Outside, the men managed to pry open the coffin. Natasha heard her daughter begin to scream.
To his relatives, Andrianov was barely recognizable—his expression frozen in a grimace, eyes and mouth wide open. The left side of his face had turned blue, while his nose was twisted as if someone had yanked it to the side. His body was covered in dirt, which had caked under his fingernails. The fatal blast wound to the heart was hidden beneath a fresh military uniform intended for a man twice his size. A pair of flimsy rubber flip-flops dangled from his feet.
Read more here.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Ukrainians of Czech descent have started leaving eastern Ukraine for the Czech Republic.
Czech Radio reported on March 1 that a bus carrying 40 people whose ancestors came to Ukraine when it was part of the Russian empire in the 19th century left the village of Chekhohrad -- which means Czech city -- in the southeastern Zaporizhzhya region.
The village, populated mainly by descendants of Czech immigrants, lies about 200 kilometers west of the front line in the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed rebels, which has killed more than 6,000 people since April.
Fighting has decreased following a February 12 cease-fire agreement.
At total of 138 Ukrainians of Czech descent are expected to arrive in the Czech Republic in the coming weeks.
Czech officials say all repatriates will be provided with housing, jobs, and medical insurance.
Ukrainian media reports say some 20,000 Ukrainians have Czech roots.
In the late 1990s, the Czech government repatriated some 200 citizens of Kazakhstan who had Czech roots.