RFE/RL's Ukraine Crisis Live Blog moved in early December to ensure fast loading. Please find it HERE as of December 5.
Barring any major developments, that ends the live blogging for today.
From our news desk:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Russia could repair relations with the West if it would help to calm the situation in eastern Ukraine where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists.
Kerry, speaking in Basel, Switzerland on December 4, said that Moscow could help "calm turbulent waters" on its border with eastern Ukraine.
Kerry made his comments after a short meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Kerry said Washington and other countries that support "Ukraine's sovereignty and rights do not seek confrontation" and do not want Russia to isolate itself "through its own actions."
Kerry also mentioned in opening remarks at the OSCE event "hundreds of Russian soldiers who fight and die" in Ukraine.
Russia denies any involvement in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
More from our news desk on the agreed cease-fire:
Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels say they have agreed to halt fire across the eastern war zone on December 9 under the terms of a September truce agreement.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on December 4 that the terms of the new cease-fire were included in an earlier peace deal agreed with the help of European representatives in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on September 5.
But the Minsk agreement published at the time made no mention of a specific date on which the two sides were due to lay down their arms.
Andrei Purgin, the self-styled parliament speaker of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, confirmed that the cease-fire was part of the Minsk deal.
More than 4,300 people have died in the fighting in eastern Ukraine in the past eight months.
More of the photos:
More on a new Ukrainian cease-fire:
President Petro Poroshenko says the Ukrainian military will halt its fire across the separatist east on December 9 under the terms of a peace deal signed in Minsk in September.
A statement on Poroshenko's official website on December 4 said the decision for the unilateral cease-fire was made at a meeting with Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and other security officials.
According to the presidential website, unspecified measures will be considered if the pro-Russian militias don't abide by the Minsk agreement.
An unnamed source in Poroshenko's office told AFP that the president's statement meant that Ukraine would begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the eastern frontline on December 10 if the separatists also observe the truce. (AFP, Interfax, and TASS)
...And Ukraine's new parliament has its first fisticuffs. The more things change...