Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said that Kyiv will not "legitimize" the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics," Interfax reports.
He also suggested that only parts of eastern Ukraine fully under national control will be rebuilt at government expense, according to the same agency.
Interfax reports that around 300 supporters of the nationalist Right Sector Party are picketing in front of a presidential-administration building in an effort to persuade President Poroshenko not to sign the bills granting "special status" to parts of Donetsk and Luhansk and offering amnesty for non-serious crimes in eastern Ukraine.
Wonder if they know that Poroshenko is in Canada.
Nearly two weeks into the cease-fire, the Ukrainian military reports that pro-Russian forces in Donetsk fired on Ukrainian troop position in at least seven places overnight...
...and at least five places in Luhansk.
A rash of tweets from Konstantin Dolgov -- the Russian Foreign Ministry's special representative for human rights, democracy and the rule of law -- assail Kyiv and complain of the continuation of the conflict.
"Attempts by the 'war party' in Kyiv to disrupt the truce should be vigorously combatted by those who are truly interested in stopping the bloodshed":
And "We cannot allow a continuation of the killing of the inhabitants of southeastern Ukraine":
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has arrived in Canada for the first leg of his North American visit, which will eventually include an address before the U.S. Congress.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov's comments in an "El Pais" supplement provided by "Rossiyskaya gazeta," via ITAR-TASS:
"Our position is absolutely clear: We want peace in Ukraine that can be achieved only through a wide, nationwide dialogue, involving all the country's regions and political forces," the minister said. Russia, the United States, European Union and Ukraine had reached the relevant agreement in Geneva on April 17, he added.
Lavrov said the Russian side was providing "active assistance in the creation of favorable conditions for the peaceful solution of serious problems Ukraine is facing."
Kyiv authorities claim that militants in eastern Ukraine have curbed attacks on ATO (counterterrorism) forces and stepped up attacks on noncombatants, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. The intent is "to discredit ATO forces and intimidate the Donbas public, the military said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that new European sanctions against Moscow will undermine efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine but that the "point of no return" has not been passed in Russia-EU relations.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper "El Pais" posted on the Foreign Ministry website on September 17, Lavrov said the sanctions "send a signal of direct support to the party of war in Kyiv."
But he said he was confident that what he called the "safety net" in Russia-EU relations would "enable us not only to restore the pre-conflict status quo but to move forward."
For this, he said the EU and the United States "should finally listen to the voice of reason and break this senseless, vicious circle" of tit-for-tat sanctions.
Lavrov said a cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists "is being observed on the whole."
A Russian lawmaker is pressing for information about soldiers he suspects were killed in the conflict in eastern UKraine.
Lev Shlosberg, a newspaper publisher and deputy in the Pskov city assembly, sent an official petition to the chief military prosecutor yesterday listing 12 servicemen who died away from their posts between July and September.
He asked prosecutors to investigate where they died, under what circumstances, and whether their deployment violated the constitution.
He said the list of 12 names "is evidently incomplete, unfortunately."
Shlosberg has been instrumental in building evidence suggesting Russian soldiers have died in eastern Ukraine, despite Moscow's denials that it has sent troops to support pro-Russian separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people since April.
Shlosberg was badly beaten by unidentified assailants after his newspaper published an investigation into the funerals of two paratroopers in late August.