Here is a map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine today, issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click map to enlarge):
Sergei Glazyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's economics adviser, told Russia's TASS news agency it is "inevitable" that Ukraine will default in the near future.
"The dynamic of the balance of payments shows that Ukraine, in the immediate future, will not be able to service its state obligations independently," Glazyev said. Assistance from the European Union and the United States will be insufficient to make up the shortfall, he added.
He said as well that it will be a "global," not a "selective" default.
Earlier Glazyev estimated it would take $120 billion to stabilize Ukraine's economy.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet in Paris on October 12 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, according to a U.S. State Department annoucement. There is no word what will be on the agenda.
If you've been regularly following the live blog, you'll know that there had been much speculation yesterday that the self-styled leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic Aleksandr Zakharchenko was going to resign at a news conference. As it turned out he denied that this was going to happen and he also had some rather incendiary comments to make about the cease-fire. Here are some translated quotes from RFE/RL's news desk:
"Let me say right away that I did not submit my resignation and at this moment I am not going to resign. So everything that the mass media has published is not really true."
"I declare: No one under any circumstances can force me to give an order to retreat. I consider all the territory [of Donbas] currently under control of Ukrainian authorities temporarily occupied and treat it accordingly. The cease-fire had been agreed so that Ukraine could understand that the conflict cannot be resolved through war and that they have an opportunity to leave all our illegally occupied territories calmly and peacefully."
"I don't know how the cease-fire is holding here or if it is holding at all. As prime minister I now have to go to the scene of shelling. You know, I have recently been to one and you won't believe it but I have a growing desire to pick up a machine gun, go to [Donetsk] airport and send a bullet through someone with my own hands."
Meanwhile, in Crimea...
Crimea's parliament has elected Sergei Aksyonov head of the annexed peninsula in a unanimous vote.
All 75 lawmakers supported Aksyonov in the vote on October 9.
Aksyonov, 41, has served as acting head of Crimea since mid-April, weeks after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine following a referendum denounced as illegitimate by Kyiv, the West, and the UN General Assembly.
He played a key role in the annexation process that began after Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president sympathetic to Moscow, was toppled by antigovernment protests in Kyiv.
All 75 lawmakers in parliament supported Aksyonov in the vote on October 9.
Ukraine considers Crimea its territory, occupied by Russia, and says elections held by Russian authorities there are illegal.
Aksyonov has made tough comments targeting Crimea Tatars, who say their minority has faced abuses under Russian rule.
(Interfax, ITAR-TASS)
The Interpreter: 21 ways life in #Crimea has changed since the #Russian Anschluss http://t.co/EMP90WaZTL
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) October 9, 2014
Life in Donetsk "even worse than before the ceasefire," people tell BBC's @oivshina #Ukraine http://t.co/tiAk2hr3JC pic.twitter.com/ul9piT3MuJ
— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) October 9, 2014
"On Ukraine, President Obama should be more like Jimmy Carter." http://t.co/rvNVSXyGjW
— Radosław Sikorski (@sikorskiradek) October 9, 2014
Ukraine Foreign Ministry says 64 Ukrainian soldiers and 36 civilians killed despite ceasefire http://t.co/yYBc4uLbCL
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) October 9, 2014
Ukraine's Hromadske TV says four mortar attacks have been launched on Donetsk airport:
Бойовики здійснили чотири мінометні удари по аеропорту Донецька – прес-центр АТОhttp://t.co/z16zxwxrKf pic.twitter.com/sD1COCgVBW
— Hromadske.TV (@HromadskeTV) October 9, 2014