Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko's hunger strike in a Russian jail reaches its fourth week:
A hunger strike by Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is being held in Russian custody, has entered its fourth week.
Savchenko's legal team says she has been ingesting only warm water for the past 21 days and that her health has begun to suffer.
Her lawyers have been barred from visiting Savchenko in detention through the end of state holidays on January 12.
Savchenko, who was captured by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in June, was transferred to Russian pretrial detention in July.
Russian authorities have charged the 33-year-old pilot with complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists covering the Ukraine conflict.
Savchenko denies the charges and says her transfer to Russia was illegal.
Savchenko's supporters on January 5 are carrying out a one-day Twitter campaign, using the hashtag #FreeSavchenko, to mark the 22nd day of her hunger strike.
Ukrainian police investigating Odesa blast:
Police in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa are investigating an explosion at a military aid center as a terrorist act.
Local authorities say the blast late on January 4 caused no injuries but shattered windows and damaged cars outside a building housing a volunteer center providing aid to Ukrainian troops fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
Interfax quoted a city police spokesman as saying assailants used an explosive device to destroy the entrance door to the one-story building.
The blast is the latest in a series to hit military support centers in Odesa.
It also comes one day after an explosion targeted freight cars carrying petroleum products at the Odesa-Peresyp railway station.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have prompted Kyiv to dispatch a National Guard unit to the city to participate in joint antiterrorism drills. (Interfax and AFP)
WATCH: Ivan, a novice monk, was inspired by the experiences of wounded fighters to leave the safety of his monastery and join a volunteer paramilitary battalion in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Now training with his unit for potential combat, Ivan believes the church stands behind his decision. (Produced by Askold Sirko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Why would the CIA work to overthrow the Ukrainian government? “The US cannot tolerate the idea of any rival economic entity,” Stone writes. Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a European Union trade agreement led to the protests that ultimately brought about his political demise. Installing a pro-Western government in Kiev to replace him, Stone presumably believes, frustrates Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union, a crude imitation of the EU comprised of corrupt, ex-Soviet autocracies. Let’s accept, for the sake of argument, Stone’s premise that the enfeebling of potential economic competitors is the ultimate driver of American foreign policy decision-making. Russia’s GDP is roughly the size of Italy’s and it’s backwards economy is almost entirely dependent on the price of a single, finite commodity: oil. Nearly every economic and social barometer, from the birthrate to life expectancy, paints a country in steep and irreversible decline. Unlike the Soviet Union at a certain period in history, the Russian economy does not hold a candle to that of the United States. Accusing his opponents of being locked in a Cold War mindset, it is Stone who is beholden to old orthodoxies. Moreover, how does shouldering the burden of a corrupt, economic basket case of a country like Ukraine strengthen American financial hegemony? Since Yanukovych left office, an unending stream of Ukrainian politicians has begged the West for tens of billions of dollars in bailouts.
Here's today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
Here's an update from our news desk:
France, Germany, and Ukraine have cast doubt on whether a four-way summit on the Ukraine conflict will be held on January 15 in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on January 5 that the planned meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France "only makes sense" if progress is made on "the full implementation" of a September 5 accord on a cease-fire.
French President Francois Hollande said he would travel to Astana if there is "a possibility of making new progress."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the talks would take place if "we manage to produce a draft [of an] agreed document" before January 15.
The comments came as representatives of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany met in Berlin to discuss efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have been battling pro-Russian separatists since April.
(Reuters, TASS, RIA Novosti, Interfax)