This ends our live blogging for November 4. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Good morning. We'll start the live blog with this update from our news desk on the withdrawal of weapons in eastern Ukraine:
The Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatists both threatened on November 4 to stop their ongoing weapons withdrawal if they keep coming under attack.
Ukrainian Defense Council Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov said that five troops were wounded by separatist attacks on November 3 and that Kyiv will stop pulling back weapons if the attacks persist.
Both sides have been pulling back weaponry since a truce was declared on September 1.
Separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko also threatened to start fighting again if Kyiv keeps violating the truce, the Donetsk News Agency reported.
Despite flareups of violence, the truce has largely held. Little progress has been achieved, however, to bring about a political settlement to the conflict, which has claimed more than 7,900 lives.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Washington welcomes the recent pullback of some heavy weapons from the line of contact, but is disturbed by an uptick in cease-fire violations over the past two weeks.
"This violence endangers the cease-fire," he said. "We call on Russia and the separatists to end the violence."
(Reuters, AP, Interfax)
A tweet from the account of the Italian ambassador to Kyiv on the "Tariff Maidan" protest organized by Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party that is demanding that the Ukrainian government slash prices for utilities.
Another update from our news desk:
Chief diplomats of Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine will meet on November 6 in Berlin to agree on the next steps in ending the Ukraine conflict, a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
Heavy weapons withdrawal is one possible measure that could be considered, with the recent progress on withdrawal of small-caliber artillery and mortars serving as a model, Sawsan Chebli said November 4.
A ceasefire between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian separatists has largely been kept since September, despite sporadic outbreaks of violence, and there have been exchanges of prisoners, said Ertugrul Apakan, head monitor at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
He said demining eastern Ukraine might be another key step to take. OSCE observers would define and map priority areas for removing mines, he said.
"The ceasefire can only be sustainable if we make progress towards a political solution for the conflict," Chebli said, including enacting constitutional reform in Ukraine and ensuring unfettered access of OSCE monitors to the entire conflict region.
(dpa, AFP)