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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

21:02 11.12.2014

Meanwhile, here's some economics news from AFP:

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Thursday [December 11] the country urgently needed billions in additional aid to avoid the economy collapsing into default.

Yatsenyuk said an international donor conference was urgently needed to get the extra money -- which he said could amount to $15 billion on top of the billions already promised in grants and loans from the West.

"In order to survive in this difficult period and avoid default, we need an international donor conference and the help of our Western partners," he told parliament.

Lawmakers voted to approve the government's general program on Thursday, which includes a number of severe austerity cuts imposed by international lenders.

The lenders want deep cuts to welfare services and a hike in energy prices to help balance the books.

Brussels has repeatedly postponed plans for a donors' meeting to help Ukraine's crippled economy.

During a visit to the country late last month, EU neighborhood commissioner Johannes Hahn said there would be no meeting until there were "sound proposals about a roadmap for reforms and first tangible results".

The International Monetary Fund has been in the country since Tuesday [December 9] on a nine-day visit to determine how much extra aid the war-wrecked and energy-starved nation will need to make it through the winter.

The Fund helped piece together a $27-billion (22-billion-euro) global rescue package -- promising to contribute $17 billion of that sum over two years -- in the weeks that followed the February ouster in Kiev of a Russian-backed president.

The IMF has warned Ukraine could need as much as $19 billion more if the war in its eastern region drags on to the end of 2015.

The visit is seen as a vote of confidence in the reformist cabinet that President Petro Poroshenko put together in late November after weeks of political infighting that left Ukraine's Western supporters frustrated and dismayed.

The finance ministry is now headed by Natalie Jaresko -- a US citizen who once worked in the State Department and more recently held a senior post in a private equity firm in Kiev.

The Lithuanian investment banker Aivaras Abromavicius will serve alongside her as economy minister. Both were handed Ukrainian passports by Poroshenko just hours ahead of their confirmation by parliament.

21:11 11.12.2014

We are now closing our live blog for today. Don't forget that you can keep abreast of all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here.

07:11 12.12.2014

RUSSIAN RUBLE AT NEW HISTORICAL LOW OF BELOW 57 VS DOLLAR ON MOSCOW EXCHANGE -- Reuters

07:26 12.12.2014

U.S. Spending Bill With Ukraine Aid Moves In Congress

07:28 12.12.2014

07:28 12.12.2014

07:29 12.12.2014

07:37 12.12.2014

From our newsroom:

The Russian ruble hit a new low of 57 to the dollar in early trading on the Moscow exchange on December 12.

The ruble's value against the dollar and the euro has continued to decline despite Russia's effort to shore it up by raising a key interest rate by one percentage point on December 11 in the fifth increase this year.

The ruble recovered slightly and was trading at about 56.75 to the dollar at mid-morning in Moscow.

One euro was buying more than 70 rubles on the exchange.

The ruble and Russia's energy-reliant economy have been battered for months by falling world oil prices and sanctions imposed by the United States, the EU, and other nations over Moscow's interference in Ukraine.

Russian share prices were also on the decline on December 12, with the RTS index falling more than 4 percent in early trading.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

07:42 12.12.2014

07:43 12.12.2014

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