Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council:
Large, unauthorised convoy enters east Ukraine from Russia -- Ukrainian military
KIEV, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Sunday that a convoy of 106 vehicles had entered its eastern territory from Russia without Kiev's permission and accused Moscow of once again using humanitarian aid shipments to send weapons and ammunition to separatist rebels.
In the separatist-held city of Donetsk, fighting intensified at the local airport, a Reuters witness said. There has been continued shelling from both government forces and the rebels, even after a peace deal signed on Sept. 5.
Months of fighting in Ukraine's separatist regions have left many without sufficient food and medical supplies. Russia has regularly dispatched shipments of aid, a move which the pro-Western Kiev government has denounced as cynical.
"The lion's share of humanitarian supplies find their way to the rebels partly in the form of food, but mostly it is ammunition, equipment and other things for combat operations," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.
The latest delivery of Russian supplies is the eighth since mid-August, Russian news agency RIA cited Russia's emergency ministry as saying, adding that a total of 9,500 tonnes of mainly food, building materials and medicine had been delivered by the first seven convoys.
A Reuters witness in Donetsk said repeated volleys of artillery fire could be heard from the direction of the local airport, a strategic point that both Ukrainian troops and rebels lay claim to.
Both sides have accused each other of violating the terms of the truce, raising fears it could collapse entirely.
Lysenko said three Ukrainian servicemen and an 82-year-old civilian had been killed in the past 24 hours.
He also said Ukrainian positions in Mariupol, a strategic city on the Sea of Azov, were once again coming under attack from rebel shelling.
Just in from the German news agency dpa:
Any discussion of Ukrainian membership in NATO is premature at the moment, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Sunday.
"NATO membership for Ukraine is not on the agenda, as far as I'm concerned," Steinmeier told German public broadcaster ZDF. "I, at least, don't see Ukraine on a path to NATO."
He added that he understands how the ongoing conflict with
Russian-backed separatists could make Ukraine's leaders interested in the security and political support NATO membership would bring.
"But we have to remain realistic. We are in the middle of a dangerous conflict. What we are experiencing is awful," he said.
Steinmeier concluded that "diplomatic responsibility" required him not to further fan the flames by holding out the hope of
NATO membership, which Russia opposes.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes to bring a referendum on NATO membership before voters at some point in the future.
From "Putin’s Anti-Gay Tirade Ends Pas De Deux With Merkel," by Bojan Pancevski in "The Sunday Times":
He had annexed Crimea and sent his forces into eastern Ukraine, but the moment when Angela Merkel finally became convinced that there could be no reconciliation with Vladimir Putin was when she was treated to his hardline views on gay rights.
The German chancellor was deep in one of the 40 conversations she has had with the Russian president over the past year — more than the combined total with David Cameron, François Hollande and Barack Obama — when he began to rail against the “decadence” of the West.
Nothing exemplified this “decay of values” more than the West’s promotion of gay rights, Putin told her.
It was then, said sources close to Merkel, that she realised Europe and America should abandon all hope of finding a common language with the Kremlin and instead should adopt a policy of Cold War-style containment.
Pope, patriarch seek dialogue, peace in Ukraine
ISTANBUL (AP) -- Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians have called for peace in Ukraine and for all sides to pursue dialogue based on international law to resolve the conflict.
Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I issued a joint declaration Sunday at the end of a lengthy liturgy to mark the feast of St. Andrew, an important feast in the Orthodox Church. The celebration was the main reason for Francis' three-day visit to Turkey.
In the statement, the two Christian leaders said they were praying for peace in Ukraine "while we call upon all parties involved to pursue the path of dialogue and of respect for international law in order to bring an end to the conflict and allow all Ukrainians to live in harmony."