This ends our live-blogging for January 7. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
A pro-Russian computer hacking group has claimed responsibility for a January 7 cyberattack on German government websites, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s page.
The group, called CyberBerkut, demanded Berlin stop "financial and political support" for Ukraine’s government.
Berkut refers to riot police deployed in Kyiv against protesters by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February 2014 after spurning a deal with the EU and turning toward Russia.
The group’s claim of responsibility, made on its website, could not be independently verified.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the attacks began at 10 a.m., leaving government websites periodically inaccessible.
He said the data center for the service provider was "under a severe attack" apparently "caused by a variety of external systems."
The attack came hours before Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was due to meet in Berlin with German President Joachim Gauck on January 7.
Putin Visits Shelter For Ukrainians Fleeing Conflict On Orthodox Christmas
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a shelter for families fleeing the conflict in east Ukraine on Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday, while the Orthodox Patriarch who heads churches in Russia and Ukraine said his heart was with Ukraine's people.
Putin, who usually celebrates Christmas by attending a midnight service outside Moscow, visited a village church that runs a refugee centre that has taken in almost 1,000 people fleeing the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine.
Millions of Orthodox believers in both Russia and Ukraine celebrate Christmas Day on January 7, following the old-style Julian calendar.
Wearing a jumper and open-necked shirt, Putin lit a candle in a church packed with women and children in headscarves in a village outside the city of Voronezh, about 290 miles(460 kilometres) south of Moscow.
He also toured a shelter for families run by the village's church, which has taken in 980 people from Donbass since the start of the conflict and is currently giving refuge to more than 90 people, TASS news agency reported.
In a Christmas message to Orthodox Christians, Putin said that Christian spiritual traditions and ideals of love and mercy "serve to unite the people and to help it survive in times of harsh troubles."
Patriarch Kirill in a video address aired on an Orthodox television channel said that he wanted to "speak particularly to our Ukrainian flock, to those whose families have faced the harsh consequences of the conflict. May God help you!"
"My heart is with the people of Ukraine," the Patriarch added. "May the Lord reconcile people in Ukraine and in the whole world."
The Moscow-based Patriarch heads dioceses in both Russia and Ukraine.
Three Soldiers Killed As Ukraine Marks Orthodox Christmas
KIEV, Jan 7 (Reuters) -- Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in attacks by Russian-backed separatists in the past 24 hours, Kiev's military said on Wednesday, in fresh violation of a ceasefire regularly flouted since it was announced in September.
The deaths, which came as both Ukraine and Russia celebrated Eastern Orthodox Christmas, also coincided with fresh diplomatic efforts to organise a summit in Kazakhstan next week in an attempt to restore peace in eastern Ukraine.
Though large-scale clashes have diminished in a conflict in which more than 4,700 people have been killed, sporadic fighting has continued amid subdued New Year festivities and the run-up to Orthodox Christmas, which was observed quietly across Ukraine on Wednesday.
One soldier was shot dead by a sniper, while two others died in mortar and small arms attacks near the international airport in the industrial city of Donetsk, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
"In the past 24 hours, the situation in the east has not really changed. The terrorists carried out provocative attacks on the forces of the anti-terrorist operation in violation of the ceasefire," Lysenko said.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Brent crude fell more than $1 to $49.92 a barrel in early trading January 7 before edging back above the $50 mark.
Slowing global growth and increased supply of oil and gas have pushed prices sharply lower in recent weeks.
The oil traded in the United States, known as West Texas Intermediate crude, has already seen its price go below $50.
Oil producing countries including Russia have been hit as the price of their main export falls.