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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

10:39 9.12.2014

From our newsroom:

Supplies of Russian gas are flowing to Ukraine after a six-month suspension.

Maksim Belyavskiy, the head of Ukrainian gas transportation network Ukrtransgaz, said on December 9 that gas supplies from Russia to his country have resumed.

Belyavskiy said Ukraine should receive some 43.5 million cubic meters of gas daily for the rest of this month.

State-controlled Russian exporter Gazprom confirmed it resumed deliveries to Ukraine after received a $378 million prepayment for 1 billion cubic meters of gas for December.

Russia suspended gas shipments to Ukraine in June as tension mounted following the ouster of Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych and Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

Gazprom cited Ukraine's multibillion-dollar gas debt and demanded prepayment for future supplies.

The resumption of supplies follows an October 30 deal signed by Russia, Ukraine, and the EU to ensure deliveries to Ukraine over the winter.

Based on reporting from Interfax and Reuters

11:12 9.12.2014

As winter sets in, fighters in eastern Ukraine face a new enemy -- the cold. Evhen Solonyna of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service visited a pro-government checkpoint north of Mariupol on November 8, where soldiers from the Poltava volunteer brigade said they lacked winter uniforms, boots, and thermal underwear.

Battling The Cold At East Ukraine Checkpoint
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11:13 9.12.2014

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking today at a joint news conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders in Moscow:

"We hope that the coordinated line of contact will actually enable the so-called regime of silence and the beginning of the withdrawal of heavy armaments on both sides of the line."

11:38 9.12.2014

11:53 9.12.2014

This is higher than the death toll of two that Ukrainian officials were reporting earlier today.

11:54 9.12.2014

12:24 9.12.2014

An updated story from our newsroom:

Ukraine Attempts 'Day Of Silence' Truce

12:27 9.12.2014

The latest stance within the pro-Russian separatist leadership, according to Interfax:

A date for the Minsk negotiations has yet to be approved; December 12 is a possibility, self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) negotiator Vladislav Deinego said.
"I have not received an invitation to a [December] 9 meeting. We have planned to have a meeting this week, presumably, on Friday, [December] 12. If Ukraine is not ready to sit down at the negotiating table by then, it will happen either on Saturday or on Sunday," Deinego told a press conference on Tuesday.

12:28 9.12.2014

Via Reuters:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Russia of violating international law with its actions in eastern Ukraine but said she would do all in her power to achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

"We cannot solve this by military means," Merkel told a congress of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). "We will need a lot of patience, but I'm confident we can get through this."

12:29 9.12.2014

Interfax quotes Ukraine's top commander, Viktor Muzhenko, as saying that 192 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since September 5, when the Minsk cease-fire was agreed.

Also from the same agency:

"The regime of silence will take effect today and we will discuss the fulfillment of other stabilization measures in eastern Ukraine when we have guarantees that hostilities have really been halted," Muzhenko said.

He underlined that the truce "was declared for an indefinite period of time."

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