Germany calls Putin's Crimea claim "religious magnification":
Berlin (dpa) - A claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Crimea is like the Temple Mount to Russians was rejected as a "religious magnification" Friday by a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"That in no way justifies the breach of international law that Russia committed by the annexation of Crimea," Steffen Seibert said, adding that the peninsula had been the home of various ethnic groups of varying religions for centuries.
He insisted that German policies on the Ukraine conflict are not anti-Russian but are designed to call a breach of international law what it is and create incentives for a diplomatic solution.
Putin‘s remarks Thursday had "an obviously domestic motivation," Siebert said.
Putin had said in a Moscow speech that the Crimea is as sacred to Russia as Jerusalem‘s Temple Mount is to Jewish people.
"It was here that the spiritual source of the long-standing monolith of the Russian nation and the Russian central state were formed," Putin said.
Incoming OSCE Chair Serbia Treads Carefully On Ukraine
By Albert Otti
Basel, Switzerland (dpa) -- Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic made clear on Friday that the Ukraine crisis was not simply Russia's fault, setting the tone for his upcoming chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE).
At the turn of the year, Switzerland will pass on the chairmanship
and the task of dealing with Ukraine to Serbia, which has close ties with Moscow, but is at the same time aiming to join the European Union.
Dacic's statement at the annual OSCE foreign ministers conference in Basel stood in contrast to many of his counterparts at the meeting, who clearly pointed to Russia as the main culprit in the conflict.
"Different perceptions of the root causes and erosion of trust and
confidence led to the escalation of the crisis, and these issues need to be adressed urgently," Dacic said at the end of the conference.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Basel on Thursday that the eastward expansion of NATO and the EU had not taken into account Russian interests, and warned against a Western monopoly on security in the region.
The crisis in Ukraine was set in motion when the government of
Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych suspended a planned association agreement with the EU late least year, a decision that led to his removal from office.
Germany will chair the pro-democracy and security organization in 2016, and Austria will follow in 2017, the group's 57 countries
agreed Friday.
The OSCE has taken on various tasks including environmental and gender issues in past years, but German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday that the group should reconnect to its core task of building security through dialogue and confidence-building measures.
Ukraine's Poroshenko Tells Army Not To Give Up Donetsk Airport
By Natalia Zinets and Maria Tsvetkova
KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The whole of Ukraine will be within reach of the "enemy" if its armed forces lose control of the international airport in the eastern city of Donetsk to separatists, President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday.
Poroshenko issued the warning after another night of intense fighting with Russian-backed rebels at the airport, part of a new spasm of violence in a conflict which has triggered the worst standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
Ukrainian troops made a tactical withdrawal in the face of rebel mortar and artillery strikes then returned to their positions, the Kiev military said.
Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes with the separatists in the past 24 hours, a military spokesman said, despite a three-month ceasefire.
The latest fighting, which included fresh shelling on a district of rebel-controlled Donetsk in which a pensioner was killed, came just days before both sides were due to try to reinforce the shaky ceasefire by observing a "Day of Silence" on Dec. 9.
Kiev and its Western backers accuse Russia of sending troops across the border and arming the rebels, charges Moscow denies.
Poroshenko made his comments at a Kiev ceremony in which he awarded medals to some of the defenders who have hung doggedly on to control of the airport since May.
"I am sure that we are defending there the whole of Ukraine," he said. "If we give up Donetsk (airport), the enemy will be at Borispil or Gostomel or even in Lviv," he said.
Borispil is the name of the capital's main international airport and Gostomel is a small former military airfield outside Kiev. Lviv is Ukraine's main city in the west.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the separatists had suffered "big losses" in three failed attempts to break through Ukrainian positions, including at Donetsk airport.
Ukrainian and separatist leaders have pledged to observe the "Day of Silence", intended to prepare for creation of a non-militarised buffer zone, from which the two sides will withdraw artillery and other heavy military equipment.
The United Nations puts the overall death toll in the conflict at more than 4,300.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday agreeing a demarcation line between the rival sides was the crucial element that had stalled earlier truce efforts.
"We expect the ceasefire to take effect in full from Dec. 9 ... The ceasefire was announced before. It led to a considerable easing in violence but not to a full (halt of fighting)," Lavrov said during a visit to Basel, Switzerland.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, also speaking in Basel, said: "We have human losses and human suffering every day. So it's about real delivery, it's about deeds and not just commitments and words."
Barring any major developments, this concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Friday, December 5. Check back in this same space tomorrow for more continuing coverage.
From our newsroom:
Russia's Gazprom has confirmed it has received a prepayment of $378 million from Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz for gas shipments in December.
Russia's Interfax news agency on December 6 quoted Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov saying the transfer had been made at 2:00 am local time.
Naftogaz said late on December 5 that it had transferred the amount.
The move paves the way for the first shipments since Moscow cut supplies in June in a dispute over prices and debts.
Russia wants Ukraine to pay for gas in advance.
According to the terms of a deal signed in October by Naftogaz and Gazprom, gas should flow from Russia to Ukraine within 48 hours from when the Russian firm receives the transfer.
Naftogaz did not say how much gas it planned to buy, but earlier the Energy Ministry said this could be about one billion cubic meters.
Cash-strapped Kyiv had delayed buying new supplies, but increasingly cold weather has forced it to draw down on severely depleted reserves.
Based on reporting by Interfax and Reuters