The five best tweets on the crisis in Ukraine

AS PRO-RUSSIAN protesters resist calls to lay down arms in eastern Ukraine, Twitter is awash with rolling updates and images. Here are five of the best, offering insight into where things stand, and what may happen next:

@ViceNews

Vice is gathering a reputation for excellent on-the-spot reporting, including video despatches from the front line, such as this piece from Luhansk – Ukraine's most easterly city. Go inside one of the occupied buildings with Vice journalist @SimonOstrovsky, who was held prisoner by pro-Russian separatists for three days, and see the pro-Russian protesters sustaining themselves with lard and mayonnaise sandwiches.

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@BBCWorld

An overview of what is happening where, illustrated with photography from Ukraine's eastern cities.

@ForeignPolicy

This tweet links to an analysis of how a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine could play out. If it did come to war, @ForeignPolicy notes, Moscow has 50,000 troops lined up against roughly 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers. But Ukraine's numerical advantage is undermined by the fact that their soldiers are "poorly equipped and would struggle to mobilise fully".

@KyivPost

The editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post, one of Ukraine's main English-language newspapers, writes a polemic on the pressing need for decisive intervention from the West. "If the West and Ukrainians want to save the nation, the time is now", Brian Bonner states.

@RT_com

The Kremlin-backed news service gives its own interpretation of events in Ukraine, criticising the White House for its supportive attitude towards the country's interim government and for referring to pro-Russian protesters as "gunmen".