Our Ukrainian Service reports that commander from several volunteer battalions addressed an open letter to President Petro Poroshenko urging him to crack down on Ukrainian television programming during "wartime." Ukrainian broadcasters' airing of shows that casually include portrayals of Ukraine's "enemies" in the Russian military.
"People with the chevrons of Russia and its military structures are killing us!" it says.
The volunteer-force commanders demand that Poroshenko end "Russian propaganda broadcasts in the form of media products, including [TV] series, movies, and entertainment where idealization of our enemy arises."
This is from a BBC report from late August on alleged Russian troop deaths in Ukraine:
The long-rumoured involvement of Russia's military in Ukraine tallies with the reports of a sudden loss of contact between soldiers and their relatives, posted on social networks, websites and regional media.
Added credibility comes from a network of NGOs called the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which has been at the forefront of defending soldiers' rights ever since the Russian wars in Chechnya in the mid 1990s.
Lyudmila Bogatenkova, the head of the Soldiers' Mothers branch in Stavropol in southern Russia, claimed on Wednesday that it had a list of 400 names featuring many wounded and dead soldiers.
Ukrainian sources are claiming that a highly outspoken Russian activist, Lyudmila Bogatenkova, who has been waging a dedicated campaign to track down the identities of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine, has been arrested, possibly for alleged financial fraud.
Pretty clear that her activities make life uncomfortable for the Kremlin and Russian authorities.
And here's a Ukrainian media report on Bogatenkova:
From our newsroom, wrapping up any overnight developments along with recapping yesterday's events:
Ukraine and Russia both signalled progress towards resolving their dispute over natural gas supplies after talks in Italy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met three times in Milan on October 17 -- including twice with European Union leaders -- on the sidelines of a Europe-Asia summit.
Petroshenko said after the meetings that "we have some certain progress [on the gas issue] but left some details which need to be discussed."
He added that he hopes a final deal can be agreed to before scheduled gas talks including EU officials on October 21 in Brussels.
Putin also indicated a deal was close but said Ukraine must pay past debts to Russia for gas already received earlier this year.
He said Moscow and Kyiv agreed on the terms of gas supplies "at least for the winter period."
French President Francois Hollande described a gas deal as being "within reach."
And Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said on October 17 that the sides had agreed on "the key parameters" of a deal.
Russia raised the price it charges Kyiv for natural gas after Ukraine's pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February.
Moscow then halted gas supplies to Ukraine in June when Kyiv failed to pay the higher price.
Putin said Russia is ready to reduce Ukraine’s gas debt by $1 billion to $4.5 billion by retroactively offering a lower gas price.
He also expressed hope that Ukraine’s Western partners would help the country overcome its cash deficit.
On October 16 in Belgrade, Putin warned that Europe faces "major transit risks" to gas supplies from Russia this winter if Ukraine siphons gas from transit pipelines.
Russia is the EU's biggest external gas supplier, providing about one-third of the gas consumed there, and previous price disputes between Moscow and Kyiv have led to supply cuts that have chilled Europeans in wintertime.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that Putin told her he would seek to get pro-Russian separatists to grant investigators access to the site of the Malaysian Airlines crash site.
The Russian president also said the agreements reached in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, last month on settling the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are not being implemented fully by either side in the conflict.
He said that Moscow was ready to further mediate the peace process, but insisted that it was no party to the conflict.
Putin also said Moscow agreed to a deal with France, Germany, and Italy to use reconnaissance drones to monitor fighting in Ukraine.
A first round of talks in Milan was attended by Putin, Poroshenko, Merkel, and Hollande, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and outgoing EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso
"So far, I cannot see any breakthrough here," Merkel said after the talks, while Poroshenko said he was "not very optimistic."
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, described the discussions as “difficult, full of misunderstandings, disagreements.”
Peskov told reporters that some participants displayed "a complete lack of desire to take an objective approach" to the Ukraine crisis.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 3,700 combatants and civilians since April and driven Moscow's ties with the West to post-Cold War lows, prompting punitive sanctions against Moscow and a Russian ban on many foods from the EU, its biggest trading partner for years.
Russia blames the conflict on the EU, the United States, and the pro-Western government that gained power in Ukraine after Yanukovych’s ouster.
Kyiv, NATO, and Western governments say Russia has supported the rebels with troops, weaponry, and propaganda after illegally annexing the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in March.
Western leaders say Moscow must see to it that a cease-fire and steps toward peace agreed on September 5 in Minsk are implemented.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, TASS, Interfax, and AFP
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Friday, October 17. In the meantime, check here for any breaking developments.
Something on the heart-warming side as we wind the day down.