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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

12:01 13.1.2015

11:33 13.1.2015

11:16 13.1.2015

Here is an update on Nadiya Savchenko from RFE/RL's news desk:

A Ukrainian military pilot who has been in Russian custody since July says that her "spirit cannot be crushed."

In a letter written at the Moscow pretrial detention facility where she is being held, Nadiya Savchenko vowed to continue a hunger strike she announced on December 15, and expressed gratitude to those who have supported her.

"I have never been weak and never will be. My spirit cannot be crushed," Savchenko said in the handwritten letter made public on January 12 by lawyer Nikolai Polozov.

Savchenko was captured by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in June and jailed in Russia in July.

Russian authorities have charged her with complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists who were killed covering the Ukraine conflict.

Savchenko denies the charges and says her transfer to Russia was illegal.

In the letter, she wrote that she decided on the hunger strike because it was the only way to fight injustice.

Jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko
Jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko

11:09 13.1.2015

Here is a map of the military situation today in the Donbas region and it really looks like things are hotting up there at the moment -- issued by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (click image to enlarge):

09:47 13.1.2015

09:00 13.1.2015

Some economics news now, from RFE/RL's news desk:

The ruble was falling on January 13 as prices for oil, a key Russian export, hit new lows on world markets.

The Russian currency was trading at about 65 per U.S. dollar at midmorning in Moscow, its lowest rate this year, and about 77 per euro.

The ruble lost nearly half its value against the dollar last year, driven down by rapidly falling oil prices and economic troubles aggravated by sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and other countries over Moscow's intervention in Ukraine.

The ruble plunged to 80 per dollar on December 16 before recovering ahead of the New Year as the government spent billions of dollars to prop it up.

Oil prices fell to their lowest in nearly six years on January 13 as concerns about a persistent global supply glut overshadowed record high imports from energy-hungry China.

Brent North Sea crude fell to $45.84 per barrel, the lowest since March 2009, and U.S. WTI crude fell to $44.90.

With reporting by Reuters and Interfax

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