A Canadian warship is at the centre of an international incident in the Black Sea, south of Ukraine.  A Canadian frigate taking part in a NATO exercise on Sunday was buzzed by Russian military jets.  Federal Defence Minister Rob Nicholson says the planes circled HMCS Toronto in a manner that did not pose a threat.  But he called the incident “unnecessarily provocative” says it risks escalating tensions in the region even further at a time when a fragile ceasefire is just taking hold.

There is renewed concern the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine may have been breached. The city council of the rebel held stronghold of Donetsk says regular shelling continued overnight leaving one woman injured.  The Interfax-Ukraine news agency quotes the director of medicine for Ukraine’s ministry of Defence, as saying that five servicemen had died and 33 had been injured since the start of the cease-fire Friday.  Both sides have blamed each other for repeated violations of the cease-fire.

This won’t sit well with Canada’s foreign affairs minister.  John Baird is warning Russia, that Canada will impose additional sanctions if the fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine fails.  A new round of sanctions were imposed last month.