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)

January 20, 2015 04:05 GMT

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

07:24 16.1.2015

07:23 16.1.2015

07:03 16.1.2015

Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this update on talks from RFE/RL's news desk:

Pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine have signaled their readiness to participate in a meeting of the "Contact Group" in Minsk on January 16.

Igor Plotnitsky, head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, said late on January 15 that he would not go to the Belarusian capital for the meeting with representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), but was sending another man, Vladislav Deinego.

A leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, said his delegation was also ready for the Minsk meeting.

Pushilin said that, if there was a breakthrough on January 16, Plotnitsky and the separatist leader in Donetsk, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, would come to Minsk.

The last round of talks of the Contact Group took place in Minsk on December 24.

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and OSCE envoy to Ukraine Heidi Tagliavini led their respective delegations at those talks.

Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE met in Kyiv late on January 15 to prepare "for the planned consultations" in Minsk, according to an OSCE press statement.

Meanwhile, the White House says U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed their concerns about an escalation in violence in eastern Ukraine.

In a January 15 phone call, Obama and Merkel discussed the need for "a lasting and peaceful resolution to the conflict" between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the White House said in a statement.

They spoke shortly after the rebels declared that they had captured the battered airport in Donetsk, an eastern Ukrainian city largely controlled by the separatists.

The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, said it was maintaining its positions at the airport.

(Based on an OSCE press statement and reporting by TASS, Interfax, AP, and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)

20:48 15.1.2015

We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume blogging tomorrow, you can keep up with all our news desk's latest Ukraine coverage here.

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Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)