From our News Desk this morning:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland is due in Kyiv on Monday to hold talks with senior Ukrainian government leaders.
The State Department said in a statement that Nuland "will discuss the U.S. commitment to assist ongoing reform efforts in Ukraine, the status of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and U.S. support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity."
Nuland's visit comes amid fresh Ukrainian reports of violations of a month-old cease-fire by Russian-backed separatists.
Military spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy said in Kyiv on Sunday that two Ukrainian service staff were killed in the previous 24 hours as government forces came under attack in several parts of the east.
In the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, a senior rebel official, Eduard Basulin, said three pro-Russia fighters were killed in the previous 24 hours, mainly in fighting around the airport, which is controlled by the Ukrainian military.
Rebels have been trying for weeks to dislodge government troops from the airport.
Good morning. We are resuming our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Monday, October 6.
That concludes the live blogging. Join us again tomorrow.
More on the non-cease-fire:
Ukraine's military is accusing Russian-backed separatists of fresh violations of a month-old ceasefire.
Spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy said in Kyiv October 5 that two Ukrainian service staff were killed in the past 24 hours as government forces came under attack in several parts of the east, including the airport of Donetsk.
In Donetsk, where strategic buildings are controlled by separatists, a senior rebel official, Eduard Basulin, said three separatist fighters were killed in the past 24 hours, mainly in fighting around Donetsk airport.
Rebels have been trying for weeks to dislodge government troops from the airport, whose modernized runway is capable of being used by heavy transport aircraft.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the ceasefire on September 5 as the cornerstone of a peace plan to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in space:
Russian cosmonauts say watched Ukraine crisis from space
MOSCOW. Oct 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr
Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, who have returned to Earth after a
six-month stay aboard the International Space Station, said they had
been following developments in Ukraine but had no political arguments
with fellow astronauts from the United States or Japan.
"We didn't have any politics there. Our colleagues and ourselves
realized that the International Space Station was probably the only
point of contact where we would be able to cooperate, with America in
particular: No matter how badly we row on Earth, this project survives,
and, thank God, we have enough brains not to destroy it and to remain
friends," Artemyev said in answering a question from Interfax at what
was the two cosmonauts' first news conference after their return.
"There are no borders up there," he said.
Good morning. Morning update from our news desk on the fighting around Donetsk:
Heavy fighting has been continuing in eastern Ukraine amid attempts by pro-Russia rebels to capture the Donetsk airport despite a month-old cease-fire.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on October 4 that 12 separatists were killed, along with two government soldiers, during failed assaults on the facility over the previous 24 hours.
Artillery and rocket barrages in the battle have been intensifying during the past week, with separatist fighters also using tanks to fire salvos at the airport’s main terminal.
Donetsk, is eastern Ukraine's largest city and the separatists' main stronhold, but the airport has remained under the Ukrainian government's control.
The Donetsk city council meanwhile said an artillery attack on the city on October 4 claimed two civilian lives, describing the local situation as "tense."
Neither side has been willing to implement the cease-fire by pulling back from the battle to create a 15-kilometer buffer zone between front lines.