AFP with breaking news as violence continues in Donetsk:
Six people were injured from a shell in a school in east Ukraine's Donetsk as pupils showed up for their first day of class in the pro-Russian separatist town, a source in the local city hall told AFP.
"A shell hit one of the schools in Donetsk today," the source said. "The shell landed five metres from the school. Six adults, including teachers and parents were injured."
Reuters again!
UKRAINE CENTRAL BANK SAYS WILL SELL FOREIGN CURRENCY TO NAFTOGAZ TO PAY $1.6 BLN EUROBOND
Also from Reuters, a reminder that the "winter season heightens Russia-Europe gas game":
Since September, Russia's state-controlled Gazprom has sent less-than-requested deliveries to Poland, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary - after the European Union began sending gas to Ukraine - in a clear warning from Moscow ahead of the winter heating season which officially starts on October 1, when the industry switches to higher pricing.
"Nobody should be surprised by what Russia does. They want to keep pressure on Ukraine... at the start of the heating season," said Michael LaBelle, a gas expert at the Central European University in Budapest.
Russia is Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas, meeting almost a third of annual demand and in return, Gazprom receives around $80 billion in annual revenues from its European customers, making up the majority of its income.
Moscow halted gas flows to Ukraine three times in the past decade, in 2006, 2009 and since June this year, although this year gas for the EU via Ukraine has so far continued to flow.
Opening up gas flows eastward was part of the EU's response to Gazprom's decision to cut supplies to Kiev in June. Slovakia, Poland and Hungary can also send gas to Ukraine but so far deliveries have not been without incident.
From Reuters:
POLAND'S PM KOPACZ SAYS CEASEFIRE IN UKRAINE DOES NOT MEAN POLAND AND EUROPE CAN ACCEPT DIVISION OF UKRAINE
From our newsroom:
Young men from Chechnya are being drafted into Russia's armed forces for the first time in 20 years.
Some 500 men aged 18-27 will be drafted this autumn.
Officials at Russia's Southern Military District said on October 1 that drafting commissions had started working in Chechnya's 17 districts and that the first group of conscripts will be sent to military units in 10 days.
Mandatory military service in Russia is 12 months.
Chechen youth stopped being drafted to the Russian Army in late 1994, when the Kremlin sent the military into Chechnya to try to crush its separatist leadership.
Government forces drove separatists from power in a second war and Moscow announced in 2009 that its "counter-terrorist" operation in Chechnya was over.
Chechen separatist fighters gradually turned into Islamic insurgency and spread to other parts of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.
Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS
From a France 24 journalist:
Paul Goble on some of the fact and fiction in the minds of Russians regarding the historical roots of an independent Ukraine.