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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

16:36 16.1.2015

15:44 16.1.2015

Savchenko has been refusing food for more than a month and her lawyer says the hunger strike has taken a toll on her health.

Read Andrei Shary and Claire Bigg on the Ukrainian Air Force pilot being held in Russia.

14:33 16.1.2015

Not so tangentially related.

13:46 16.1.2015

13:43 16.1.2015

13:24 16.1.2015

Here's another update from RFE/RL's news desk:

Plans for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine were up in the air on January 16 amid persistent fighting.

Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine had been expected to meet in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on January 16.

But the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the talks would take place.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said that six soldiers had been killed and 18 wounded in the previous 24 hours.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces repelled several attempts by rebels to seize control of a terminal at the ruined international airport in Donetsk, the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.

He said the rebels had used artillery, tanks, mortars, and rockets in the offensive, and denied claims by separatists that they had taken the facility.

Lysenko said several other government positions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, whose capitals are held by the rebels, had come under fire.

Authorities in Donetsk said four people died overnight after shelling sparked a fire at a warehouse.

(Reuters, Interfax, AFP)

13:13 16.1.2015

13:12 16.1.2015

12:13 16.1.2015

It seems like there's still a lot of fighting going on in Donbas, if today's map of the situation in the region from Ukraine's Security and Defense Council is anything to go by (click image to enlarge):

12:10 16.1.2015

Here's an update from our news desk on what's happening at Donetsk airport:

Ukrainian authorities said on January 16 that six soldiers had been killed and 18 wounded in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east in the previous 24 hours.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces repelled several attempts by rebels to seize control of a terminal at the ruined international airport in Donetsk, the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.

He said the rebels had used artillery, tanks, mortars, and rockets in the offensive, and denied claims by separatists that they had taken the facility.

Lysenko said several other government positions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, whose capitals are held by the rebels, had come under fire.

Authorities in Donetsk said four people died overnight after shelling sparked a fire at a warehouse.

The fighting came amid expectations for a meeting on January 16 between representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the rebels, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Minsk.

The U.S. State Department said on January 14 that the intense fighting around the airport was among the "latest egregious violations of the commitments made by the Russian-backed separatists" under a September 5 deal on a cease-fire and steps toward peace.

(Reuters, AFP)

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