Corey Flintoff

At the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines jet in eastern Ukraine, international observers are trying to keep tabs on the rebels' treatment of victims' bodies and potential evidence from the scene.

NPR Moscow correspondent Corey Flintoff, who is following the investigation into the Malaysia Airlines flight that was apparently shot down, answers questions about how it's developing.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are now members of the EU and NATO, but they have painful memories of the Soviet occupation. The Baltic states are asking for a bigger NATO presence in their countries.

Diplomats are trying to arrange a new ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. But Ukraine's president is under domestic pressure to take decisive military action against pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine and Russia give different estimates of how many have been displaced by fighting in the eastern provinces, but they agree that people are being forced from their homes in battle-scarred cities.

Russia says it has cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine after Kiev missed a deadline to pay part of its huge outstanding energy debt.

Moscow has been talking lately about "color revolutions" as a new form of warfare employed by the West. The name comes from the Orange and Rose Revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, respectively, but it's now being applied to popular rebellions such as those in Egypt and Syria. While Russia accuses the West of this kind of subversion, it seems to be following the same playbook in eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow will respect the outcome of the upcoming election in Ukraine but later said he still has concerns about the legitimacy of the vote.

There are increasing signs of friction between pro-Moscow separatists and local residents in eastern Ukraine, as some local people demand an end to the violence and lawlessness in the region.

Residents of eastern Ukraine are trying to figure out what happens next, now that pro-Russian separatists have claimed independence. But there's even disagreement over what's feasible.