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Displaced residents talk to UNHCR staff in the front line village of Luhanske, in eastern Ukraine. UNHCR/Evgeny Maloletka

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is increasing its humanitarian assistance to help civilians affected by the recent spike in fighting and the harsh winter conditions in eastern Ukraine.

Fierce clashes over the last two weeks have caused civilian casualties and damaged homes and schools in the government-held townof Avdiivka. After a decline in hostilities over the weekend, 20 new families lost their homes due to shelling on Monday night. In total, close to 150 houses and 30 apartments have been damaged or destroyed by shelling and fighting in Avdiivka since last week.

Last Thursday, UNHCR delivered 40 metric tons of shelter material and relief items for 2,000 people in the town as part of a government-led response. These included blankets, bedding and towel sets, jerrycans, buckets and winter clothing.

Although electricity, water and heating have now been restored in most of Avdiivka, people living in houses close to the contact line are still without services.

Some 300 people, including 135 children, were voluntarily evacuated from Avdiivka last week. However further fighting and damage to critical infrastructure could lead to a new wave of displacement among the more than 800,000 people still residing in the conflict zone.

According to one of our partner organizations, some 46 unaccompanied children arrived in the neighboring town of Slovyansk, some of them without documentation. UNHCR is working with local authorities and partners to provide them with legal assistance and relief items, including blankets, bedding sets and winter jackets.

We welcome the more active role the Ukrainian Government is starting to play in the coordination of humanitarian assistance, both at the provincial and central levels.

The fighting is also severely impacting civilians living in and around Mariupol, insouth eastern Ukraine. Over the weekend, the city of Mariupol, which hosts half of million people, was left without electricity for several hours, while some 70 houses were damaged in neighboring villages.

Renewed fighting is also affecting non-government controlled areas. Communities living along the contact line near the city of Donetsk are particularly affected, with more than 20 villages still without electricity, despite temperatures expected to fall below minus 20 C this week.

According to the de-facto authorities of the Donetsk region, some 500 people have been displaced since the surge of fighting late January, the majority of whom are now being sheltered in collective centers.

UNHCR has distributed plastic sheeting and basic relief items to the most vulnerable and to those accommodated in the collective centers in Donetsk. Some 2,000 vulnerable families have also received coal, as part of our winterization programme in non-government controlled areas.

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Eastern Ukraine: UNHCR speeds up assistance after spike in fighting - UNHCR

New York Times

Trump Seems to Side With Russia in Comments on Ukraine New York Times WASHINGTON President Trump cast doubt on whether Moscow is backing separatists engaged in the recent escalation of fighting in eastern Ukraine, appearing to side with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has long denied involvement in the ... Ukraine Town Repairs After Worst Shelling in MonthsVoice of America The Case For Arming Ukraine So It Can Stand Up To RussiaJalopnik Kiev Is Fueling the War in Eastern Ukraine, TooForeign Policy (blog) USA TODAY -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette all 175 news articles »

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Trump Seems to Side With Russia in Comments on Ukraine - New York Times

The glorification of Stepan Bandera and other Nazi collaborators will prevent Ukraines integration with the European Union, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Polands ruling Law and Justice Party, warned.

In his interview with weekly Do Rzeczy, cited by Polish media, Kaczynski said that he had already shared his thoughts with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

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I plainly told President Poroshenko that they wont make it to Europe with Bandera. Its absolutely clear to me. Weve already shown great patience, but everything has its limits, he said.

Its the case of Ukraines specific choice, the politician said of Kievs attempts to whitewash Bandera and other Ukrainian far-right radicals, who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

Bandera was leader of the militant arm of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during the beginning of World War II, but was later arrested by the Germans and spent years in a concentration camp.

OUN cooperated with the Nazis, urging the Ukrainian people to aid the invading forces in destroying the Soviet Union.

After being released, Bandera became the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that was created in 1942, which mostly fought against the Armia Krajowa of Poland and the Red Army in Western Ukraine.

According to Kaczynski, the Ukrainian nationalists surpassed the Germans in their brutality against the Poles.

Its estimated that between 76,000 and 106,000 Poles, mainly women and children, were killed in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during the campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by Banderas UPA in 1943-44.

For many years theres a cult of people who committed genocide against the Polish people, the former Polish PM said.

The 108th anniversary since Banderas birth in early January was marked by torch rallies, which went on unhampered by the authorities and gathered thousands of people in Ukrainian capital Kiev and the port city of Odessa.

READ MORE: Ukrainian nationalists hold torchlit march in Kiev to mark anniversary of Nazi collaborator Bandera

The majority of demonstrators were members of the Right Sector and other far-right groups, which played a key role in the 2014 coup that brought the current Ukrainian leadership to power.

READ MORE: Spanish team refuse Ukrainian footballer loan after fans protest 'neo-Nazi links'

In 2010, the nationalist icon was even honored with the title of Hero of Ukraine, but the decision was later outlawed by a court.

Excerpt from:
'Ukraine won't make it into EU if keeps glorifying Nazi collaborator' Poland's Kaczynski - RT

EU foreign ministers want the ceasefire in Ukraine respected following a sharp escalation of fighting last week between Kiev and Russia-backed separatists.

"We restated with all the ministers the strong support of the European Union to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements," the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Brussels on Monday (6 February).

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"The European Union will continue to support Ukraine."

Britain's foreign minister Boris Johnson told reporters ahead of the meeting that for the UK, sanctions would also not be lifted on Russia for annexing Crimea. "There is no case for the relaxation of the sanctions," he said.

Belgium's foreign minister Didier Reynders said the European Union also needed to have a greater role in the three-year-old war. But not everyone was happy with Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijarto describing the sanctions against Russia as having little impact.

The EU call comes amid contradictory signals from the US administration on Russia.

Donald Trump's flattery for Russia's president Vladimir Putin, despite evidence of US election rigging, has sowed confusion.

Trump said sanctions would remain but had also said "well see what happens".

Nikki Haley, the new US ambassador to the United Nations, took a clearer line. She said earlier this month that Crimea-related sanctions would continue until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine.

The Ukraine government appears undeterred by the mixed signals from the US, however.

On Monday, its vice-prime minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told MEPs in Brussels that Trump's administration would "get the whole picture" in the coming months.

"US policy is being built on the national interests of the United States of America, that includes among other things, the secure stable democratic development in this part of the world," she said.

Klympush-Tsintsadze accused Russian forces of deliberately shelling humanitarian aid centres in Avdiivka, a city in eastern Donetsk province.

The city was gripped in some of the most intense fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed insurgents last week since 2015. Klympush-Tsintsadze said 15 Ukrainian military personnel and three civilians were killed in the region.

She said Russian regular military forces and armed groups had attempted to break through the Ukrainian defence lines on 29 January. The attack happened a day after Trump had spoken to Putin about Ukraine and mutual cooperation on the phone.

The town, with a population of over 20,000, was left without electricity as winter temperatures plummeted to well below freezing.

Klympush-Tsintsadze also said that Russia continues to send troops, weapons, and mercenaries, across the 409km border that separates the two countries.

A lull in fighting appears to have set in over the past few days but an official from the EU's foreign policy branch, the EEAS, said the conflict remains highly volatile.

"There is still frequent use of rocket artillery, heavy artillery, mortars and tanks along the contact line," he said.

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EU wants Ukraine ceasefire respected amid renewed fighting - EUobserver

Low wages and rapidly rising prices have made petrol more expensive in Ukraine than anywhere else in Europe.

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According to RIA Rating research, while gasoline in Ukraine remains one of the cheapest in Europe after Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Russia at $0.88 per liter for high-octane petroleum, low wages make it the least affordable.

An average Ukrainian earns slightly more than $200 a month, according to the finance ministry's website.

The research concluded an average Ukrainian could buy only 185.1 liters, or refill a tank three times each month.

That's only half of what Bulgarians can afford; the country ranked second worst-performer in the rating.

Ukraine had the biggest surge in petroleum prices last year at 21.5 percent, which outpaced the country's inflation of 12.4 percent.

While gasoline prices are the highest in the Netherlands, its citizens can still buy 1,837 liters of premium gas a month. Countries with the cheapest petrol, income adjusted, are Luxembourg, Norway, and the UK.

Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Russia have the cheapest gasoline in Europe, but lower salaries compared to Western countries make it less affordable. While a Russian can buy 814 liters of petroleum a month, this is a better result than the EUs Portugal, Poland or the Baltic States, but smaller compared to the blocs northern and western countries.

The research concludes Eastern and Southern Europe has the least affordable gasoline on the Continent.

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Ukraine has least affordable gasoline in Europe by far - RT