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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

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14:45 9.12.2014
A piece of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is loaded for transport to the Netherlands in the village of Hrabove in the Donetsk region on November 20.
A piece of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is loaded for transport to the Netherlands in the village of Hrabove in the Donetsk region on November 20.

Dutch To Begin Assembling MH17 Wreckage For Investigation

AMSTERDAM, Dec 9 (Reuters) -- Crash investigators were to begin reconstructing the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 shot down over eastern Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people on board, after wreckage arrived by truck at a Dutch air force hangar on Tuesday.

Members of the national Safety Board will piece together the remains of the plane to determine exactly what brought down flight MH17.

A parallel criminal investigation is being conducted by Dutch prosecutors in 11 countries to identify possible culprits. Two-thirds of the passengers on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch.

Washington and its allies said pro-Russian rebels fighting in the area hit the plane with a surface-to-air missile. Russia, caught up in its worst confrontation with the West since the Cold war, said the missile came from a Ukrainian government jet.

Dozens of relatives of the victims looked on in the southern town of Gilze-Rijen as eight flatbed trucks pulled into the military base under police escort.

Ukrainian emergency services operating under Dutch supervision picked up wreckage considered most valuable for the inquiry during a six-day operation in November. Bits of fuselage could help determine what direction the missile came from.

Grieving families have protested against delays in the investigation after debris lay strewn across the crash site for months. One group last week called for a U.N. envoy to take over the investigation, saying Dutch authorities had failed to build a case.

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Here is an English map of the latest military situation in eastern Ukraine issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click image to enlarge):

17:19 9.12.2014

No trains to Ukraine. From our news desk.

Russia's state railway company says it will stop almost all service to Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan for a year starting December 14, citing a lack of demand.

In a statement on its website on December 9, Russian Railways said its Federal Passenger Company unit is suspending the service because it is not profitable.

It said "the decision to suspend some trains' operations had been caused by a significant decrease in the volume of international rail travel, which led to the ineffective use of engines and trains."

Russia is deeply at odds with Ukraine over Moscow's annexation of Crimea and an armed conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

But Russia is trying to strengthen ties with other ex-Soviet republics including Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, its partner in a Customs Union.

Kazakhstan's state railway company says its 10 trains linking Kazakh cities with Russia will continue to run.

Tajik Railways Company said its trains to Russia will also continue to operate.

Russian Railways will continue to operate trains to Moldova, Belarus, and northern Kazakhstan as well as two trains to Uzbekistan, which go through Kazakhstan.

17:52 9.12.2014

RT's Graham Phillips not a fan.

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