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A priest stands in front of a hospital destroyed after shelling between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern city of Donetsk, Ukraine, on January 19.
A priest stands in front of a hospital destroyed after shelling between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern city of Donetsk, Ukraine, on January 19.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

Final Summary For January 20

-- A military spokesman says Ukrainian soldiers on January 20 came under attack from Russian regular forces in the north of the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.

-- Germany's foreign minister says he and his counterparts from Ukraine, Russia, and France will meet on January 21 in Berlin in a bid to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine.

-- The chief of Russian gas giant Gazprom says Ukraine's discount "winter price" for natural gas will end on April 1. Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said in a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that the price for Kyiv would be set in accordance with a long-standing contract, one Kyiv has long sought to change.

-- Russia says a European Union decision to keep sanctions against Russia in place shows the EU is not ready to change an "unfriendly course" toward Moscow. The EU's decision "only confirms the fact that the EU is still not ready to alter its unfriendly course or to give an objective assessment of the Kyiv authorities' actions," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

-- A Georgian man fighting on the Ukrainian side in the conflict in Ukraine has been killed in combat near the Donetsk airport, according to relatives. Media reports in Georgia quote members of Tamaz Sukhiashvili's family as saying he was killed in a battle near the bitterly contested airport on January 17.

-- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed deep concern over what it says is the "escalation" of violence between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine over the past two weeks. In a statement, the ICRC said the fighting in and around the city of Donetsk was killing civilians and "preventing" its team from carrying out its humanitarian work.

-- An explosion near a courthouse in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has wounded 14 people, four of them seriously.

-- Russia says Kyiv is trying to solve the crisis in eastern Ukraine through military force and that could lead to "irreversible consequences for Ukrainian statehood." Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin spoke to Interfax news agency as Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of ignoring appeals for a cease-fire to be respected.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv

09:57 24.12.2014

Russia is pushing hard its own version of what happened to MH17.

09:56 24.12.2014

09:44 24.12.2014

Peace talks are due to resume today:

Peace talks aimed at ending the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists are due to resume on December 24.

The negotiations in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, are to bring together envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the rebels, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A second meeting is to take place on December 26.

The last rounds of Minsk consultations in September produced a cease-fire and the outlines of a broader peace agreement that gave the rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine self-rule for three years.

But the deals were followed by more fighting that killed more than 1,000 people.

On December 23, Ukraine's parliament voted to abandon the country's neutral "non-bloc" status and set a course for NATO membership, a move immediately denounced by Russia as "unfriendly."

21:22 23.12.2014

We are now closing the live blog for today. Don't forget, until we get the ball rolling again tomorrow, you can keep up with all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here.

21:03 23.12.2014

And here is the today's situational map from eastern Ukraine, issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click image to enlarge):

21:01 23.12.2014

An interesting tweet showing the difference between the situation in eastern Ukraine on August 15 and October 28:

20:55 23.12.2014

20:52 23.12.2014

19:19 23.12.2014

19:19 23.12.2014

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