Rebels claim to encircle Ukraine troops in Debaltseve

The rebels have been trying to seal off the strategic town of Debaltseve

Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine say they have encircled the town of Debaltseve - but Ukraine says its troops are still fighting along a supply road. The strategic town is a key railway junction and has been the focus of intense fighting for more than a week.
Ukrainian officials said at least nine soldiers and seven civilians had died in fighting in the town since Sunday.
Earlier, US President Barack Obama said he had not ruled out supplying arms to Ukraine if diplomacy failed.
Russia had violated "every commitment" in a truce deal, he said, after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Mrs Merkel is opposed to sending weapons to the warring sides.
She has been briefing Mr Obama on a new peace deal for the conflict in Ukraine's east.
Russia has denied accusations of sending troops and supplies to re-enforce the rebels battling Ukrainian forces.
'Demilitarised zone' The rebels said on Monday that they had cut off a key supply road to Debaltseve, which is near the rebel-held city of Donetsk. However, Ukraine's military told the BBC that the battle was continuing.

Mrs Merkel's US trip is the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity to try to end nearly a year of conflict in Ukraine

Military spokesman Olexandr Matuzyanyk told the BBC "there is fighting going on for this road at the moment".
Thousands of Ukrainian troops are believed to be in Debaltseve and the surrounding area. Heavy fighting has been raging there for more than a week, with the rebels gaining some ground.
The crisis in Ukraine has already claimed more than 5,300 lives and displaced 1.5 million people.

Mrs Merkel met the US president in Washington on Monday to update him on Franco-German efforts to revive last year's Minsk peace plan, which collapsed amid fighting over the winter.
The detailed proposals have not been released but the plan is thought to include a demilitarised zone of 50-70km (30-45 miles) around the current front line.
Four-way talks between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France are due to be held in Belarus's capital Minsk on Wednesday to discuss the proposals.
'One option' Speaking alongside the German chancellor, President Obama said the option of "lethal defensive weapons" for the Ukrainian government remained on the table.
"If, in fact, diplomacy fails, what I've asked my team to do is to look at all options," he said, adding that offering lethal arms was only one of the options under consideration.
Mrs Merkel, who has made it clear she opposes sending lethal arms, acknowledged setbacks in efforts to reach a diplomatic solution with Russia over Ukraine, but said that they would continue.

Much of the recent fighting has taken place around Debaltseve - a key piece of territory in the east

Meanwhile Mr Obama criticised Russian aggression in Ukraine, saying that the borders of Europe could not be "redrawn at the barrel of a gun".
Russian action had reinforced the unity of the US and its European allies, he added.
EU foreign ministers in Brussels agreed on Monday to impose further sanctions against Russian and rebel officials, but have put them on hold for a week to give peace efforts a chance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is also considering the peace proposals, earlier blamed the West for causing the crisis, saying they had broken pledges not to expand Nato and forced countries to choose between them or Russia.
In comments to an Egyptian newspaper, Mr Putin accused Western states of supporting a "coup d'etat in Kiev" - a reference to the ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych last year.

Many civilians have fled the Donetsk fighting

 

Original post found here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31332524 

Germany balks at Ukraine appeal for arms to fight rebels

(Photo: Johannes Simon, Getty Images)

Vice President Joe Biden is backing the German-French diplomatic push to calm the crisis in Ukraine, but says as long as Moscow continues its current course, the international community will continue to impose costs on Russia. (Feb. 7) AP

Yemen crisis: UN warns rebels after they seize power

The rebels made their announcement at the presidential Palace in Sanaa

The UN Security Council has warned of unspecified further steps if the Shia Houthi rebels who took power in Yemen do not immediately return to talks.

Gulf Arab states had called for a stronger international response after the rebels announced a political takeover in the capital, Sanaa.

Ex-NATO chief warns Putin could attack Baltics as Ukraine, rebels reach humanitarian deal

NATO's former secretary-general has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could engineer a Ukraine-style intervention in one of the Baltic republics as the leaders of France and Germany flew to Moscow to make a last-ditch bid for peace in eastern Europe.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Britain's Daily Telegraph Thursday that Putin's goal was to reassert Russian dominance of Eastern Europe by testing, and ultimately fracturing the West's bedrock Cold War alliance.
"There is a high probability that he will intervene in the Baltics to test NATO's Article 5," Rasmussen said, referring to the section of NATO's charter mandating that other member states come to the defense of a fellow member under armed attack. "Putin knows that if he crosses the red line and attacks a Nato ally, he will be defeated. Let us be quite clear about that. But he is a specialist in hybrid warfare."
All three of the so-called Baltic republics -- Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania -- were part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. All three joined NATO in 2004. All three also have sizable minority populations of ethnic Russians. Rasmussen says his fear is that Moscow will generate a conflict under murky pretenses, In the case of Ukraine, the fall of the pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych prompted Russia's annexation of Crimea and a bloody civil war between Kiev's new pro-Western government and separatist rebels thought to be trained and equipped by Russia's military.
Article 5 has been invoked only once in NATO's 66-year history, by the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It is not clear what would happen if a NATO member claimed Article 5 protection, but was turned down by the NATO council.
Rasmussen added that many of NATO's European member nations have slashed military spending to such an extent that they cannot defend themselves without U.S. help.
"Nato countries have cut defense spending by 20 percent in real terms over the last five years – and some by 40percent - while Russia has increased by 80percent. The aggression in Ukraine is a wake-up call," Rasmussen said.
"We learned in the Libyan crisis that Europe is totally reliant on the Americans for air-refueling, drones, and communications intelligence. We don’t have air transport. It is really bad."
Meanwhile, in Ukraine itself, the rebels reached an agreement Friday with government forces on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the epicenter of fighting on Friday.
Rebel leaders said the agreement would allow the evacuation of civilians from Debaltseve, a key railway hub that has become the focus of fighting in recent weeks because of its strategic location. It wasn't immediately clear where the evacuees would go.
  The cease-fire around Debaltseve held Friday as a convoy of several dozen buses drove from nearby Vuhelhirsk toward Debaltsevo, where a shrinking population has been trapped in cross-fire and left without power, heating and running water for almost two weeks. Half-way to Debaltsevo, the convoy's movement was stopped by concrete blocks, apparently intended to block military vehicles from using the road.

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are set to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin a day after discussing their proposals with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. In a sign of the importance of the initiative, this will be Merkel's first trip to Moscow since Ukraine's conflict broke out last year.

  The fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russia-backed separatist rebels and Ukrainian forces has intensified sharply over the past two weeks. Russia vehemently denies that it is backing the insurgency with troops and weapons, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rejected that denial on Thursday's visit to Kiev.

  More than 5,300 people have been killed since the separatist insurgency flared up in eastern Ukraine in April following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Original post found here: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/06/ex-nato-chief-warns-putin-could-attack-baltics-as-ukraine-rebels-reach/