Ukrainian hacking collective CyberBerkut has reported that they have obtained a series of documents from the Ministry of Information Policy in Mariupol, featuring correspondence about the need for a pro-Ukrainian social-psychological propaganda campaign, and noting that a "sweep" of the city is taking place.

According to the group, over 100 people have been arrested over the past few days.

CyberBerkut claims to have obtained correspondence belonging to Ukrainian Ministry of Information Policy Minister Tatyana Popova, one of which recommends a "pilot project of military-civilian administration" in the embattled city.

The future of the European Union lies in at least three fragmented alliances around influential centerpieces, Sanda Raskovic Ivic, President of the Democratic Party of Serbia, told Sputnik.

"The EU will one day eventually fall apart on at least three alliances," Raskovic Ivic said.

The official's forecast comes amid increasing disagreement within the 28-nation bloc. Raskovic Ivic projected current differences of opinion in the European Union will lead to further division lines.

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko has confirmed that the DPR has restored the railway junction in Debaltseve in a matter of 12 days, following earlier reports that it had been completely destroyed and turned into "the surface of the moon."

"The Debaltseve railway junction has been restored. On March 3rd, ammunition was seen being unloaded from trains," Lysenko stated on Friday, cited by Ukraine's Podrobnosti.ua.

On February 19, Lysenko had reported that the Debaltseve railway junction had been destroyed. "The strategic Debaltseve railway junction has ceased to have any significance for the local region. The entire railway hub has been turned into the surface of the moon: everything has been destroyed."

Greece's government submitted a bill to offer free food and electricity to thousands of poverty-stricken Greeks as its first legislative act in parliament, in a symbolic move to address what it calls a "humanitarian crisis".

Athens, which got a four-month extension of a financial rescue from the euro zone last month, has sought to assure its lenders that such measures will not burden the budget while showing Greeks that it is sticking to pre-election pledges.

"The deep recession due to austerity policies and the economic crisis in the past six years had a dramatic social impact," said the bill, which was tabled late on Tuesday. "This draft law aims at tackling the humanitarian crisis through measures which ensure access to basic goods."

During a cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that improving living conditions of those hurt by the crisis was the government's "foremost duty", but reiterated Athens was still committed to a balanced budget.

The government's first bill foresees the restoration of electricity connections in primary residences by the end of 2015. The long-term unemployed and families with young children will have priority. About 300,000 Greeks will get food vouchers.

A rent allowance of up to 220 euros a month for 30,000 households is also included in the bill, whose total cost is estimated by the government at about 200 million euros.

The US is increasing its claims against Moscow to a new level - with fresh accusations about thousands of Russian troops in Ukraine. At a congressional meeting, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland stated as fact that there had been an invasion. RT's Gayane Chichakyan has the details.

I reported on Ukraine's new 'information army' last month, here. Launched by Kiev's Ministry of Information Policy to combat the alleged "Russian occupation on the information front", it's hard to decide whether to laugh or cry.

While the source in that article says the number of recruits for the first day couldn't have topped 13,000, in the eyes of Ukraine's minister of information policy Yury Stenets, that's close enough for horseshoes to 35,000. For some strange reason, in Kiev a small or non-existent number (like the number of Russian troops in Ukraine) is always large, while a large number (like the number of their troops killed or wounded in action) is always small.

In a 'country' whose media has led the vanguard in total disconnection from reality - presenting outright lie after outright lie as indisputable truth - it's still a shock to read something like the following from Stenets:

We are not going to create fake news, we are not going to talk nonsense and we will not speak untrue things. As soon as one starts doing that, it becomes ineffective.

Puhleeze! But then, he's kind of right. So far, Kiev's policy of just making shit up has proven itself to be totally ineffective. Their ass-like stubbornness against publicly admitting that thousands of their troops were trapped in Debaltsevo resulted in the loss of the vast majority of their heavy weaponry there, not to mention the deaths of thousands of the troops. (But Kiev doesn't care much about the troops - that's why they had troops to kill the troops trying to escape from the non-existent cauldron. Just more cannon fodder in the epic battle against evil Russia.)

Today the National Bank of Ukraine announced new capital controls on currency transactions. All Interbank Transactions Over $10,000 are Banned.

The national Bank of Ukraine has expanded the list of administrative restrictions for stabilization of the hryvnia, in particular, completely prohibiting the withdrawal of foreign dividends and limiting the purchase of foreign currency on the domestic markets.

Resolution No. 160 is effective from March 4, 2015 and is valid until June 3, 2015.

Previously, prohibitions did not target dividends on securities that are traded on stock exchanges.

The NBU has also introduced limits on the balance of banks' operations on the interbank market at the end of the day and banned financial institutions from using currency derivatives on stock exchanges.

These restrictions apply to customer's accounts over $10,000 as valued by the official rates.

Gold Buying Prohibited

In addition, the NBU banned precious metal transactions in amounts over 3,000 UAH [about $125], and also the transfer of currency abroad in excess of 15 thousand UAH [about $625].

In the Emperor's New Clothes, only the little boy can say that the emperor is naked. The good news about yesterday's speech by Netanyahu to a joint meeting of Congress is that lots of media are taking on that boy's role, and pointing out the nudity: exclaiming over the fact that a foreign leader came into our house of government to try and overrule our president on foreign policy. Chris Matthews was especially forceful, describing it as a takeover. While a New York Times article said that Democrats have to choose between "loyalty to the Jewish state" and the president.

But journalists have a bigger job than merely exclaiming. They must explain to readers why this outrage took place. Why did Netanyahu get this platform? The answer is the power of the Israel lobby inside our politics. And while there was some talk about the Christian Zionist component of the lobby compelling Republicans to show up, no one could explain why so many Democrats - about 175 of them - sat still for this insult to the president. They did so because of the importance of the Jewish part of the lobby inside the Democratic Party, epitomized by Alan Dershowitz in the gallery. This was surely obvious to viewers. But the media were silent on that score.

Here is some of the coverage I'm talking about. A piece at the New York Times saying that Netanyahu had issued an effective policy challenge to Obama pointed out the strangeness of the spectacle -

Mr. Netanyahu's hotly disputed address constituted a remarkable moment in Washington: a foreign leader taking the podium before members of the House and Senate to argue strenuously against the policies of the sitting American president. In doing so, the Israeli leader was essentially urging lawmakers to trust him — not Mr. Obama — when it comes to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon...

Times reporters Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear then openly spoke of Democrats whose "loyalty to the Jewish state" is competitive with their support for the president:

For Democrats who have long viewed themselves as supporters of Israel, Mr. Netanyahu's speech sought to impress upon them the likelihood that they will eventually need to make an awkward, painful choice between the president of their country and their loyalty to the Jewish state.

Why is that choice awkward and painful? I would like to hear why those Democrats feel that "loyalty." Why aren't we hearing about Haim Saban and other leading funders of the Democratic Party? Why aren't Chris Matthews, Jon Stewart, Anderson Cooper and Chris Hayes interviewing John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the scholars who wrote the book The Israel Lobby?

Stewart did a lot of Jewish shtick about the Netanyahu speech yesterday. He called it the longest blowjob a Jewish man has ever received. But he tried to put it on the Republicans - "the state of the union speech the Republican wanted." Hold on. As the Times informed us: "Some Democrats who are strong supporters of Israel praised Mr. Netanyahu's speech."

REN TV announced that the investigative group working on the Nemtsov murder has images of suspected killers' faces. They were obtained after a thorough study of the killers' departure from the crime scene. After detecting the ZAZ Chance car which was used by the killers to make their getaway, investigators requested all materials from the Potok surveillance system along their route, and also surveillance video recordings. They also requested that drivers of other cars who were driving on the same streets at the same time be identified, so that any dashboard camera recordings might be studied.

"These measures allowed us to get several images. They are only in the possession of the investigative group, which now includes specialists from the Counter-Extremism Center, the most experienced operatives of Moscow criminal police, representatives from the FSB and the SKR. We have images of at least two individuals. One can readily tell from the images that they were most likely born in the southern parts of Russia," said REN TV source.

FSB Director Alenksandr Bortnikov said that the investigators have identified suspects. Of course, he added that there are always suspects.

US defensive weapons may become part of the arsenal of an oligarch-sponsored part of the Ukrainian army if Washington decides to provide military assistance to Ukraine, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said.

"Do we see any of these weapons becoming part of the arsenal of that part of the Ukrainian army, which I believe the third of the Ukrainian army now that is in conflict, that is financed by the oligarch, a private citizen who happens to be a multi billionaire," Rohrabacher asked US Assistance Secretary of State Victoria Nuland at a hearing in US Congress on Wednesday.

Rohrabacher query came as many members of US Congress are advocating that the United States provide defensive weapons to Ukraine.

The United States has been assisting Ukraine with economic and non-lethal military support since the Kiev government began a military operation against independence supporters in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk last April.

In December, US Congress authorized the allocation of $350 million to arm the Kiev government. However, US President Barack Obama has not enacted the legislation.

While members of the Obama administration and US Congress have stated their support to arm Ukraine, US NATO allies Germany, France, Spain and Italy have opposed the measure.