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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

13:25 12.12.2014

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13:34 12.12.2014

Here's an update from RFE/RL's news desk:

Ukraine's defense chief has called for the military budget to be doubled next year to increase the armed forces' ability to fight pro-Russian separatists in the east.

At the same time, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak told parliament today (December 12) that some units would be shifted to the west and south because of what he said were threats from Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway Transdniester region and Russian troops on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Poltorak called for a military budget of 50 billion hryvnia (about $3.2 billion) and said it had totaled 26 billion hryvnia this year.

He said the military planned to spend about $110 million buying new weapons abroad and $365 million on domestic arms procurements.

More than 4,300 people have been killed since April in a conflict between government forces and the rebels, who hold two provincial capitals in the east.

"We are facing the threat from our eastern border. But there is also a threat from Transdniester and from the south, and the quantity of our units there will be increased," he said.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine, whose economy is struggling and its currency falling, would have to divert funds from social payments to increase defense spending.

Poltorak said Ukraine would draft 40,000 conscripts and train 10,500 contract soldiers in 2015.

He said the total strength of the armed forces would increase to 250,000, from 232,000 this year.

(UNIAN, Reuters, AFP)

13:46 12.12.2014

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15:50 12.12.2014

It looks like another Georgian will be joining the government, according to this report from RFE/RL's news desk:

A former deputy interior minister of Georgia, Ekaterina Zguladze, is expected to be appointed to a similar post in Ukraine next week.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook on December 12 that he had signed a recommendation addressed to President Petro Poroshenko to grant Ukrainian citizenship to Zguladze so that she can be appointed.

According to Avakov, Poroshenko has welcomed his recommendation and it is expected that Zguladze will become a Ukrainian citizen next week, after which Avakov will ask the Cabinet to appoint her as his first deputy.

Zguladze helped carry out sweeping law enforcement reforms that were praised by the West under former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Saakashvili and his allies have come under vocal criticism from the former opposition politicians who unseated them in a 2012 election and some face criminal investigations or charges.

Ukraine's new government, approved on December 2, includes Health Minister Aleksandr Kvitashvili, who was health minister in Georgia under Saakashvili; American-born Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, who previously worked at the U.S. State Department; and Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, a Lithuanian investment banker.

All of them obtained Ukrainian citizenship before joining the cabinet.

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