RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has some more details about the explosion this morning in Odesa:
A powerful explosion has rocked a building in Odesa where an office collecting assistance for the Ukrainian military is based.
The building in the city center was empty at the time of the early morning blast on December 10, and authorities said nobody was hurt.
Ukrainian officials are investigating the explosion as a terrorist attack.
A bomb went off early last month at a bar in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv frequented by Ukrainian soldiers, injuring 11 people.
It was also the site of fundraising to support the military, which is fighting against pro-Russian separatists who Kyiv says are backed by Russian troops and weapons.
More than 4,300 people have died in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April.
(With reporting by TASS)
!!! BREAKING !!!
The Interfax news agency has cited Ukrainian representative Leonid Kuchma as saying pro-Russian separatists have violated a cease-fire and a new round of peace talks would not be "expedient" in the coming days.
More details to follow...
Here are some more details on Leonid Kuchma's comments, as reported by Ukraine's RFE/RL's news desk:
Ukraine's representative at peace talks with Russia, separatists, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says a new round of negotiations should not be held in the coming days because the pro-Russian separatists have violated a cease-fire.
The Interfax news agency quoted Leonid Kuchma, a former Ukrainian president, as saying a new meeting of the "contact group" seeking to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine should not be held until it is clear that the other side wants peace.
"In a situation where the second party is unable to ensure the cease-fire regime, I do not consider this meeting expedient," Kuchma was quoted as saying.
"Let them show that they do actually want peace and not war, that they are fully in control over armed formations," he said.
A meeting was expected to be held by the end of the week following a truce between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists on December 9.
(Interfax, Reuters)
Kyiv looks to enhance its security cooperation with the West:
Ukraine has created a Secretariat for Security Cooperation with NATO and the European Union.
The head of Ukraine's Security Service, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, introduced the new security body's chief, Yevhen Marchuk, on December 10.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on December 9 that Ukraine would act to abandon the neutral "nonbloc status" introduced in 2010 under then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted by pro-Western protesters in February.
Marchuk, a former prime minister and defense minister, said that scrapping that neutrality would give "a new impulse" to Ukraine's cooperation with NATO and the EU.
But he said Ukraine would have to tread a "long and difficult path" before it could join NATO.
Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March and supports separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, vehemently opposes Ukraine joining NATO and wants the alliance to pledge never to accept Ukraine as a member. (UNIAN, Interfax)