This ends our live blogging for October 30. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Ukraine Librarian Detained In Moscow Falls Ill, Claims Was Framed
By RFE/RL
The detained head of the Russian Library of Ukrainian Literature has fallen ill in custody and claims Russian authorities framed her by planting extremist books in her collection.
"She said they had planted a large batch of books during the searches," Russian rights activist Zoya Svetova told the AFP news agency on October 30 after speaking with Natalya Sharina, the 58-year-old library director detained by Russian authorities.
After the library was raided October 29, Russia's Investigative Committee said authorities had found books by Ukrainian ultranationalist author Dmytro Korchynsky, whose works are banned in Russia. It charged Sharina with inciting ethnic hatred and violating human dignity by distributing such books.
While Sharina was not present at the library when it was raided by armed, masked police, who carted off about 200 books, her deputy, Vitaly Krikunenko, said the library did not keep Korchynsky's books and called the accusations against her "absolute nonsense."
Sharina denied the charges in the Taganka district court in Moscow on October 30.
"I didn't do anything illegal," she said. "The library staff examined the new arrivals carefully and as soon as one or another titles was added to the list of extremist literature, we immediately excluded them from general public access."
Library employees say any extremist books purportedly found by investigators were planted to create a pretext for the raid.
Tatyana Muntyan, an employee, said she had personally seen investigators plant banned books in the library the day before the raid.
"They brought books with them which were included on the list of extremist literature," Muntyan told Reuters. "I saw it. The books they brought did not have our stamp inside them. They planted these books."
The investigative committee did not respond to the charges.
Meanwhile, Sharina fell into a health crisis while under detention, suffering several bouts of extreme high blood pressure which required treatment by medical personnel, her lawyers said.
Russian news agencies said the court decided October 30 to put Sharina under house arrest and charge her with incitement of ethnic hatred. That crime can result in up to four years in prison.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, TASS, and Interfax
Russia Blasts 'Politicized' Rule Change IMF Mulling For Ukraine
By RFE/RL
Russia's finance minister expressed concern about a possible rule change by the International Monetary Fund that would enable it to keep lending to Ukraine even if Kyiv defaults on its debt to Russia.
"Russia does not want Ukraine to be left without financial support," Anton Siluanov said on October 30, but Russia is suspicious of the "hastiness" of the rule change at the IMF.
"We are concerned that the changes in the policy of the fund are forced in the context of a very politicized issue of restructuring of the Ukrainian debt," he said.
The IMF has said it is considering easing a long-standing rule against lending to countries in default in "carefully circumscribed circumstances" to keep Ukraine's $17.5 billion bailout package alive.
Ukraine, running short of cash, has sought to restructure its $3 billion debt to Russia the same way it has rescheduled its privately held debt, but Russia has refused to go along.
Moscow -- which is also running short of cash and reserve funds -- insists it should get full repayment on schedule by the end of the year.
Ukraine must make a critical payment on the debt to Russia next month. The IMF rule change would increase the likelihood of Ukraine defaulting on that payment, a possibility Ukraine has admitted it is considering.
Under its current rules, the IMF is not allowed to lend money to a country when it is in default on debt to an "official" lender such as another government.
Under those rules, if Kyiv defaults on the $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond bought by Russia, the IMF would have to cut off its credit, even though the country is reeling from a deep economic recession and pro-Russian insurgency in the east.
The rule change would allow the IMF to keep lending to Ukraine as long as Kyiv has made a "good faith" effort to renegotiate its debt with Russia.
While Russia objects to the rule change, Siluanov said that even if the IMF went through with it, Ukraine would not meet the new criteria.
"Ukraine has not carried out such negotiations with Russia," he said.
A meeting between Siluanov and Ukraine's finance minister earlier this month failed to produce any agreement on restructuring the debt because of Russia's objections to changing the terms.
Siluanov said Kyiv at the meeting refused to consider any alternatives apart from equating Ukraine's debt to Russia with its debt to private investors.
Under pressure from the IMF, Ukraine and its private creditors reached an agreement this summer that wipes out $3.6 billion in debt and reschedules repayment on $8.5 billion.
In a statement October 29, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said that creditors involved in that debt restructuring should expect to receive new Ukrainian sovereign securities on November 12.
Arguing that its debt to Russia should be considered a commercial loan rather than a formal agreement between the two countries, Ukraine had given Russia until October 29 to either accept the same restructuring terms or face a "legal war" in court.
The $3 billion loan was given by Moscow to Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych in late 2013 in what Kyiv now says was essentially a bribe to get him to ditch a deal for closer ties with the European Union.
Yanukovych's decision to dump the EU agreement sparked protests that eventually led to his ouster and unleashed a chain reaction of events that has included Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and a pro-Russian insurgency in the east.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, TASS, and Interfax
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Ukraine soldier killed by rebel fire at Donetsk airport
Kiev, Oct 30, 2015 (AFP) -- A Ukraine soldier died Friday during in fighting with insurgents near the shelled-out remains of the airport in Donetsk, a stronghold of the pro-Russian separatists, the army announced.
"One soldier was killed and another injured" a military statement said.
Earlier in the day the army reported rebel fire against its positions in the village of Piski, an area controlled by Kiev forces near the flashpoint Donetsk airport which fell into separatists hands in January.
On Tuesday another Ukraine soldier was killed in a mortar fire exchange near the remains of the airport.
Such attacks highlight the fragile nature of the latest ceasefire, in place since September 1, in a conflict which has cost more than 8,000 lives in the past 18 months.
Donetsk airport was for several months the scene of fierce fighting between the Ukraine army and the pro-Moscow insurgents before falling into separatist hands, and remains one of the main flashpoints.
The lull in fighting has raised hopes of an end to one of Europe's deadliest conflicts since the Balkan wars of the 1990s, but the process has been slow and periodic exchanges of deadly mortar fire still flare up.
The sporadic fighting and seemingly irreconcilable differences over the pro-Russian regions' future status within a unified Ukraine means that a peace process that was meant to be finished by the end of the year will drag on into 2016.