Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling with this item that came in overnight from our news desk:
Ukraine 'Ready To Pay Price' For EU Deal, Putin Suspends Trade Zone
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says his country is "ready to pay the price" for a trade deal with the European Union after Moscow moved to restrict its own trade ties with Kyiv over the EU-Ukraine pact that is due to take effect on January 1.
Poroshenko made the remarks upon arriving in Brussels on December 16 after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to suspend a free trade zone with Ukraine beginning on January 1.
It was controversy over the EU-Ukraine trade deal that triggered the unrest in Kyiv that culminated with the ousting of the pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia's annexation of Crimea in early 2014.
Earlier on December 16, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kyiv would suspend trade with Russian-occupied Crimea by January 15.
Yatsenyuk said Ukraine's cabinet had decided that "the supplying of goods, work, and services to Crimea and from Crimea" will be banned.
The only exceptions, he said, would be "personal items, socially important foods, and humanitarian aid."
Yatsenyuk said the restoration of electricity supplied to Crimea was a separate issue that could only be decided by Ukraine's Security and Defense Council.
Crimea is suffering long blackouts after pylons that supplied the peninsula were blown up by unknown people in November.
The issue has caused a crisis in Crimea and has worsened Ukrainian-Russian tensions.
Russia has suspended coal exports to Ukraine in retaliation.
(Reuters, TASS, AP)
A comment from the Polish president, who arrived in Kyiv for a visit yesterday
There are reports that jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is awaiting trial in Russia on charges of complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists, is going on hunger strike until the proceedings end. The charges against Savchenko have been widely criticized as being fabricated. She already protested her detention previously by going on hunger strike for more than 80 days.
Not surprisingly Ukraine has been featuring in Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual presser in Moscow.
There's been a question on Russia's reported military presence in Ukraine:
Nadia Savchenko has also featured:
There's also been talk of a possible prisoner exchange:
Here are some more details from our news desk about reports that Nadia Savchenko has gone on hunger strike again:
Savchenko Goes On Hunger Strike As Detention Is Extended
Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is in detention in Russia after being accused of involvement in the death of two Russian journalists, has gone on a hunger strike.
A Savchenko lawyer, Nikolai Polzov, said in a tweet that the detainee announced the hunger strike in a Donetsk city court in Russia's Rostov region on December 17.
"Nadia Savchenko has gone on a hunger strike until the end of the trial," Polzov said, adding that she will begin a "dry" hunger strike when she is sentenced, meaning that she will refuse both food and water.
"She demands to be released," he said.
Polzov said the court also agreed with a prosecutor's request to extend her detention until April 16.
Russian officials say Savchenko helped relay information to artillery units that fired near a location in eastern Ukraine where two Russian journalists were killed by artillery fire.
Savchenko -- who is also being charged with illegally crossing the Russian border -- says she was captured by pro-Russian separatists in July 2014 and forcibly taken to Russia.
If found guilty, Savchenko faces up to 25 years in prison.
The 34-year-old has spent over a year in custody in Russia, during which time she has already protested her detention by going on hunger strike for more than 80 days.
(TASS, Interfax)