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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

14:53 7.12.2014

14:55 7.12.2014

15:20 7.12.2014

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said via his website that Kyiv is "ready to launch decentralization of power" but that "representatives to be elected by local communities must be prepared not only to get broad opportunities but also to bear responsibility for the life and development of their territories," according to Interfax.

15:23 7.12.2014

Interfax also quotes the Donetsk rebel leadership's chief negotiator repeating that the "Donetsk People's Republic" would like to delay talks in Minsk that President Poroshenko has suggested will happen on December 9.

"We insist that the talks be held no earlier than December 12," Denis Pushilin told reporters, according to the agency. "December 9, the date proposed earlier, doesn't suit us. A multitude of problems have cropped up that must be put through approval procedures and scrutiny, or else they will not be resolved."

15:25 7.12.2014
Ukrainian-born Bolshoi prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova in a scene from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty" at the State Academic Bolshoi Theater in 2011.
Ukrainian-born Bolshoi prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova in a scene from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty" at the State Academic Bolshoi Theater in 2011.

From AFP:

A dozen top ballet stars including Svetlana Zakharova and Natalia Osipova will on Sunday perform at a keenly awaited but politically sensitive gala at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre in support of young dancers in war-torn Ukraine.

During the benefit organised by The Bolshoi's Ukrainian-born prima ballerina Zakharova, dancers from top international companies will perform highlights from a range of ballets.

All proceeds from the sold-out concert will go towards the Kiev State Ballet School in Ukraine where organisers say young dancers are trained in poor conditions.

The gala takes place amid raging tensions between Russia and Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists have battled government forces since April.

"I came to support the guys," Osipova, one of the world's most sought-after ballerinas, said ahead of the gala.

"How can one refuse? I recall how terrible it was to enter a dance hall in winter and shiver," said Osipova, the former Bolshoi star who joined Britain's Royal Ballet in 2013.

16:07 7.12.2014

That concludes our live blogging for Sunday, December 7.

07:39 8.12.2014

From RFE/RL's News Desk:

Ukraine’s energy minister has said Kyiv expects Russia to resume supplies of gas from December 8.

Volodymyr Demchyshyn made the announcement on television late on December 7, after Kyiv transferred a prepayment of $378 million to state-controlled Russian gas company Gazprom for gas shipments in December.

Gazprom says the transfer was made at 0200 local time on December 6, paving the way for the first shipments since Moscow cut supplies in June in a dispute over prices and debts.

Russia wants Ukraine to pay for gas in advance.

According to the terms of a deal signed in October by Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Gazprom, gas should flow from Russia to Ukraine within 48 hours from when the Russian firm receives the transfer.

Cash-strapped Kyiv had delayed buying new supplies, but increasingly cold weather has forced it to draw down on severely depleted reserves.

07:56 8.12.2014

07:58 8.12.2014

08:16 8.12.2014

Just in from Reuters:

US sanctions aimed at changing power in Russia - deputy minister

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A deputy Russian foreign minister accused the United States on Monday of trying to bring down President Vladimir Putin by imposing sanctions on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine, TASS news agency reported.

"It is hardly a secret that the goal of the sanctions is to create social and economic conditions to carry out a change of power in Russia," TASS quoted Sergei Ryabkov as telling the lower house of parliament.

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