Another update from our news desk:
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Russia must give a clear order to separatists in eastern Ukraine and warned the rebels not to try to take the strategic port city of Mariupol.
As casualties mount two weeks into an escalation of fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people, Steinmeier said time is running out for the implementation of a peace plan agreed in September.
Germany's warning came as fighting persisted after a senior leader of the Russian-backed separatists announced plans to seize more ground from government forces on January 23 and rocket attacks blamed on the rebels killed 30 people in Mariupol the following day.
Steinmeier, speaking on January 26, said that a rebel offensive on Mariupol would constitute a significant change in the situation and the West would have to react.
EU foreign ministers will meet on January 29 to discuss what to do about the conflict.
(Reuters)
A worrying development in Donetsk (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine say rescuers are working to evacuate nearly 500 coal miners who were trapped underground when their pit lost power after a shell hit an electricity substation.
Separatists who hold the provincial capital of Donetsk said 496 miners were trapped in the city's huge Zasyadko coal mine.
A pro-rebel news site later said 110 of the miners had reached the surface and rescue operations were still continuing.
There was no way to independently confirm the accounts.
Rebels who have seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces frequently accuse government forces of shelling civilian areas during a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people since April.
Ukraine also accuses the rebels of hitting civilians in attacks and or putting them at risk by firing from civilian areas.
(AFP, TASS, Interfax)