DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian POWs in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk began a task Wednesday that strained their hearts as well as their muscles: digging through the rubble to retrieve the bodies of fellow soldiers killed last month in the bitter battle for the city's airport.

Associated Press journalists saw at least four bodies being carried out of the once-glittering, now-obliterated Donetsk airport terminal. A Ukrainian official said seven in all were retrieved. Rebel representatives said many more soldiers were still buried under the collapsed building, but provided no figures.

One captive soldier saw two friends being pulled out of the rubble, as the facility's twisted steel beams and smashed cement walls were being sawn into pieces and towed away.

"I recognized them from their clothing. They were my friends," said the man, a member of the Ukrainian army's 90th brigade who identified himself only as Sasha.

The bodies themselves were contorted by rigor mortis after being left outside for weeks in the frigid winter. Work was briefly interrupted by the sounds of gunfire in the distance, then resumed.

It was not clear whether the Ukrainian soldiers were forced into performing the recovery work or volunteered, but rebels have previously forced POWs to perform hard labor. The Ukrainian captives were assisted by rescue workers employed by the separatists.

View gallery

A Russia-backed separatist walks away from the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen retrieved from the rub …

"These guys were fighting here. I don't know what for. They were following the orders of their president, and they respected that order," said rebel commander Mikhail Tolstykh, known widely by nom de guerre Givi. "We all are military men here and we have to respect our enemy."

Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops had battled regularly over Donetsk's airport since May, when government forces decisively rebuffed separatist attempts to take the showcase terminal built to help Ukraine host the 2012 Euro soccer championships. Fighting over the terminal surged in mid-January, swiftly unraveling a monthlong truce.

Buckling under a barrage of artillery and small arms attacks, Ukrainian forces conceded Jan. 22 that they had lost much of the terminal.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznev has said 15 servicemen were killed in fighting over the airport in January. Their bodies have lain uncollected since then.

Vasily Budik, an adviser to Ukraine's Defense Minister, wrote on his Facebook page that seven bodies were recovered Wednesday and that work at the airport would continue.

View gallery

Russia-backed separatist stand next to bodies of Ukrainian servicemen retrieved from the rubble of t …

Neither side has revealed how many captives they currently hold, but AP journalists saw up to 25 government POWs working at the airport Wednesday. The rebels handed over 139 captive Ukrainian soldiers last weekend in exchange for 52 people held by the government.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed nearly 5,800 people since April. Russia denies charges that it is arming and supporting the rebels, but Western nations and NATO reject those denials as absurd. A peace plan agreed upon earlier this month by the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, brokered by France and Germany, aims to cement a cease-fire and begin a pullback of heavy weapons.

Ukraine's military said rebel violations of the cease-fire persisted Wednesday but had fallen off in recent days.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Anatoliy Stelmakh said the rebels shelled the village of Popasna twice overnight and also continued trying to overrun Ukrainian positions at the village of Shyrokyne, near the strategic port city of Mariupol. In all, 19 artillery and mine attacks were recorded, he said.

"For a second day, we observe a reduction in shelling," Stelmakh said. "But the last day was not a cease-fire."

View gallery

A Russia-backed separatist watches as Ukrainian prisoners of war remove the body of a Ukrainian serv …

An AP journalist in Shyrokyne said it was mostly quiet Wednesday afternoon except for brief tank fire at government positions.

Ukraine says it will not begin a pullback of heavy weapons under the peace deal until the latest cease-fire firmly takes hold. Rebels said Tuesday they were beginning a pullback, but the claim could not be independently confirmed by monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

On top of the fighting in the east, Ukraine is also trying to contain severe economic troubles exacerbated by corruption and the cost of the war.

The currency, the hryvnia, has fallen about 70 percent over the past year and dropped about 9 percent on Monday. National bank head Natalia Gontareva said Wednesday the bank had bought about $80 million in foreign currency to stabilize the hryvnia.

Piling on the economic pressure, Russian President Vladimir warned Wednesday that Russia would cut gas supplies to Ukraine unless it paid in advance for future deliveries. He said the latest payment from Ukraine would only be good for another three to four days of gas, and warned that any Russian gas cutoff to Ukraine may disrupt supplies heading to other European nations.

In Brussels, European Union President Donald Tusk warned that the European Union will not hesitate to impose new punishment on the separatists and Russia if the latest Ukraine peace deal collapses.

Tusk told the EU legislature that "additional sanctions remain on the table. We should be ready for any development — good or bad."

___

Jim Heintz and Peter Leonard in Kiev, Ukraine; Mstyslav Cernov in Shyrokyne, Ukraine; and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is still struggling with whether to provide lethal, defensive weapons to Ukraine amid concerns that such a move might only escalate Russia's military campaign there, U.S. defense leaders told Congress Wednesday.

Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that he has laid out military options the administration could consider for Ukraine, ranging from sending small arms to more sophisticated weapons that would take longer to arrive and require extensive training.

Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea region and has supported Russian-backed separatists in the east.

Christine Wormuth, defense undersecretary for policy, said officials were discussing the possibility of sending defensive lethal aid to Ukraine that would not "fundamentally alter" the military balance of the war there but would give Ukraine a better ability to defend itself.

"Russia continues to build their forces, continues to provide capability to the eastern Ukrainians. So, the fact that we're not doing (that) now is not changing their path forward," Breedlove said. "So I think that we have to be cognizant that if we arm the Ukrainians, it could cause positive results. It could cause negative results. But what we're doing right now is not changing the results on the ground."

Breedlove, who has sent his recommended options to military leaders, has increasingly sounded more supportive of sending some type of defensive lethal aid to Ukraine. He and other officials declined to detail his recommendations, but some actions under consideration could include providing anti-tank weapons, more sophisticated radar systems that can link to weapons for return fire, and small arms and ammunition.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers said the U.S. and its European allies are ready to impose new costs on Russia through fresh sanctions if a faltering ceasefire for eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed rebels continues to struggle.

"We are poised yet to do another round potentially, depending on what happens with (the ceasefire) in these next few days," he said.

Breedlove, during a news briefing after the hearing, said that political, economic, military and information warfare should all be used in some part to bring an end to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.

"What is clear is that right now, it is not getting better, it is getting worse every day," he said. "We have identified things that could — could change their (Ukraine's) ability to defend their own country. We have put forward options for our senior most decision makers to make decisions, and now we'll see what our nation decides."

The comments came as U.S. and its allies also wrestle with where Russian President Vladimir Putin might next turn his attention after Ukraine.

Breedlove and Wormuth said they are worried most that Russia might move on to destabilize non-NATO countries such as Montenegro or Moldova and expand its military assault into other portions of Ukraine.

Breedlove also said that while Putin is very aware that the U.S. and others will move quickly to defend any fellow NATO nation, he said he can't rule out Moscow reaching out to ethnic Russian populations in some eastern NATO countries, such as the Baltics, which could also foment dissent.

Breedlove said the U.S. has had a number of discussions with Ukraine leaders, and there has been a consistent picture of the things they want and need in order to move forward in the struggle with Russia.

The House committee's leaders have introduced legislation that would authorize the Pentagon to provide training and defensive lethal aid to Ukraine. Right now, the U.S. military technically can only provide coaching or mentoring, because formal training would require additional White House authorization. A small U.S. military team is scheduled to deploy to western Ukraine next week to provide some combat medical instruction to Ukrainian trainers who would then then train their troops. British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Tuesday that up to 75 British military personnel will deploy to Ukraine next month to provide advice and training to government forces, including infantry training.

But he and other committee members noted that this conflict makes it more apparent that the U.S. military presence in Europe is more important now than it has been in recent years.

Kurdish forces are reaching their limits in northern Iraq as they work to push back ISIS terrorists, according to regional experts.

Dr. Anwar Anaid and Dr. Henri Barkey told Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland the situation in northern Iraq is reaching a crucial point.

Both sides remain locked in a standoff over who controls Mosul and surrounding territory.

Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces see taking back Mosul as an important step in pushing back the terrorists. A U.S. military official has already indicated coalition forces are looking to retake the city this spring.

“Getting Mosul back is critical for both Iraq and for the Kurds, but, most importantly, if you want Iraq to become one again, Mosul has to be taken -- except that is a very difficult task and nobody is ready to do it yet,” said Barkey, professor of international relations at Lehigh University.

“For the liberation of Mosul, the Kurdistan region does understand their responsibility, but at the same time, they need much more support from the international community to be fully prepared to help,” said Anaid, professor of politics at the University of Kurdistan-Hewler in Erbil.

The regional Kurdish government is in desperate need of financial and humanitarian assistance.

“They have budgetary issues with the central government; they have not been paid for the last year or so. They are taking care of [nearly] 2 million refugees,” said Anaid.

Both agree U.S. support is needed, but increased Iraqi support in the north is crucial to defeating ISIS.

“What is missing at the moment is sufficient Iraqi divisions to engage ISIS … you need local partners to work with you and that is what the [Obama] administration is trying to do -- get going,” said Barkey, author of 'Iraq, Its Neighbors and the United States.'

“The only effective force on the ground right now fighting ISIS is the Kurdish Peshmerga, but unfortunately there is resentment, sense of frustration among Kurdish officials that the credit and weapons are not given when they are due,” said Anaid. “We are doing most of the fighting, we have actually proved on the ground that we can put up an effective fight against ISIS, but we don’t see the level of international recognition [needed].’

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's national watchdog Wednesday published a damning report on the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government during a housing crisis, just as the premier seeks re-election.

It came a week after State Comptroller Joseph Shapira officially rebuked Netanyahu over excessive spending on running his private and public residences in a separate report ahead of the March 17 snap vote.

Wednesday's 294-page report said housing prices had increased 55 percent and rent costs by 30 percent between 2008 and 2013, and that "no solution was found" by Netanyahu's government, which took office in 2009, to try to slow the continuing rise.

In 2014, prices increased another five percent, figures published this week showed.

In the face of "soaring house prices," wages barely increased during the period, the report said.

"The various government departments reacted with no strategic plan of action in the long term, and without any goals set," it said.

On February 17, another report from Shapira detailed how spending on cleaning, food and repairs at Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem and his private home in northern Israel rose dramatically when the premier took office in 2009, but then decreased in 2013.

It also mentioned alleged mishandling of funds from recycled bottles by Netanyahu's wife Sarah, as well as the purchase of garden furniture for the weekend residence.

Despite the scandal, and centre-left opposition lapping up media campaigns against Netanyahu, polls suggest the incumbent premier will nonetheless win a fourth term at the head of a right-wing government led by his Likud party.

Netanyahu reacted coolly to the latest report.

"This report is important and rightly states that there are many things still to do in this domain, which I shall act on if re-elected," he said while visiting a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Israel's high cost of living and soaring housing prices in 2011 prompted hundreds of thousands of protesters to camp out in commercial capital Tel Aviv in a mass protest that summer.