Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) envoy Martin Sajdik speaks to the press after a meeting on the Ukrainian conflict in Minsk on February 1, 2017. The death toll from the latest escalation in fighting in Ukraine rose to 19 as international alarm rang out over the spike in bloodshed in the European Union's back yard. Government forces and pro-Russian separatists exchanged mortar and grenade fire for a fourth day around the flashpoint town of Avdiivka that sits just north of the rebels' de facto capital Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. NATO head urges Russia to act on 'serious spike' in Ukraine violence. / AFP PHOTO / Sergei Gapon