Another update from our news desk:
The U.S. Treasury says Washington plans to provide up to $2 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine this year as part of a broader international package to stave off bankruptcy in the country.
The Treasury said in a statement on January 13 that the guarantees would be contingent on Kyiv remaining on track with the conditions of its loan program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The statement said Washington will provide a first $1 billion loan guarantee in the first half of 2015, provided Kyiv observes the reform program agreed with the IMF.
"If Ukraine continues making concrete progress on its reform agenda and if conditions warrant, the U.S. Administration will be willing, working with Congress, to provide an additional $1 billion loan guarantee in late 2015," said the statement.
IMF officials are in Ukraine this week to resume negotiations on the package.
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Nathan Sheets is also meeting on January 13 in Kyiv with Ukrainian officials, including Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Central Bank Governor Valeria Hontareva.
With additional reporting by Reuters
Here are some more details from our news desk on the fatal missile attack in eastern Ukraine that killed a number of civilians:
Ukrainian authorities say at least six civilians were killed and more than a dozen wounded when a projectile hit a bus in eastern Ukraine.
The incident occurred on January 13 at an army checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha, 35 kilometers southwest of the rebel-held provincial capital of Donetsk.
The military said the civilians were killed by an explosion caused by a Grad rocket.
One report said the bus was carrying civilians from the coastal city of Mariupol.
The separatist, self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic denied responsibility, saying the government checkpoint is "beyond our artillery's range."
The deaths came a day after the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France, meeting in Berlin, failed to make sufficient progress to warrant holding a four-nation summit this week as part of efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
(AFP, AP, Reuters, Interfax)