Jen Psaki, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, cited the reports of fresh fighting, telling news hounds in Washington yesterday that "these incursions indicate a Russian-directed counter-offensive is likely under way in Donetsk and Luhansk." Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...'s front man, Dmitry Peskov, said "this information doesn't correspond with reality."
The violence in Ukraine expanded a day after Putin met his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, and hailed the talks as a step toward a political resolution. The government in Kiev said the fighting, which has claimed more than 2,000 lives according to the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
, has spread to the shores of the Sea of Azov, effectively opening a new front.