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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

08:21 5.12.2014

Good morning. Still a fair deal of confusion over the latest cease-fire deal. Here's the latest from our news desk:

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced a new initiative to bring a halt to fighting in eastern Ukraine.

In a statement issued on his website on December 4, Poroshenko said Ukraine's military will halt fire beginning on December 9 in eastern Ukraine, on a "Day of Silence."

Poroshenko said the measure was included in a broader cease-fire deal signed in Minsk on September 5.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted pro-Russian separatist leaders in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions as confirming such a measure was included in the Minsk agreement, but it was unclear whether they would abide by it.

The September 5 truce has been regularly violated, and more than 1,000 people have been killed since.

Earlier this week, a cease-fire for Donetsk airport broke down hours after being implemented.

For earlier entries in our Ukraine crisis live blog, click here.

08:29 5.12.2014

08:45 5.12.2014

10:13 5.12.2014

Meanwhile in Kazakhstan... Nazarbaev the peacemaker

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has told the French president that sanctions are having little effect on Russia and European countries should seek compromise with Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.

At a joint news conference after talks with Francois Hollande in Astana, the Kazakh capital, Nazarbaev said the parties must find common ground "to resolve this crisis."

He said the confrontation over Ukraine "has not helped anyone, but has had a negative impact on the international political situation and the economy of Europe, Asia and the world as a whole."

Nazarbaev said that "putting each other into a corner with sanctions does not give results" and that the impact of Western sanctions on Russia has been limited because Russia is "not very strongly integrated" into the world economy.

10:39 5.12.2014

13:51 5.12.2014

Investigative journalist Oleksiy Matsuka: Reforms in Ukraine are very needed, regardless of the conflict. First of all, we need reforms against the corruption of government and the influence of big corporations and oligarchs. And the best possible methods of the reforms must be discussed by society. Unfortunately, there is no dialogue between the government and the people, and the decisions are still being made in the same way as in Yanukovych’s time. It’s a big problem, because there have been no changes in the democratic process so far.

13:53 5.12.2014

13:55 5.12.2014

14:37 5.12.2014

14:39 5.12.2014

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