Highly speculative, obviously.
Ballot box for this weekend's voting in Donetsk.
Government forces near Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, have pulled back to new positions about 40 kilometers west of the city. But at Checkpoint 31, soldiers again came under fire on October 30 following two days of mortar and artillery attack, and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service correspondent Levko Stek was there. The troops said they were being fired on with increasing frequency despite a cease-fire in place since early September.
Soldiers of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade were welcomed in Dnipropetrovsk after serving six months at the front fighting Russian-backed separatists. The troops received a traditional greeting of bread, salt, and flowers on October 30. Despite a cease-fire in place since September 5, fighting continues in various parts of eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Poroshenko proposes keeping Yatsenyuk on as prime minister:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is proposing that Arseniy Yatsenyuk stay on as prime minister following the country's parliamentary elections last weekend.
"I have proposed that the Petro Poroshenko Bloc put forward Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the post of prime minister," Poroshenko wrote on Twitter on October 31.
Yatsenyuk's People's Front party narrowly beat out the Petro Poroshenko Bloc in voting by party in the October 26 election, according to a nearly complete count.
But Poroshenko's bloc fared better in first-past-the-post voting and was positioned to take more parliament seats than the People's Front, according to election commission data.
Yatsenyuk is a vocal critic of Russia and is popular among Western governments for his support for economic reforms. (with AFP)
Ukraine says EU leaders pressed Kremlin on the rebel elections being held by pro-Russian separatists:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's office says the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, and France have urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to recognize elections being held on November 2 by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko, Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande held a four-way telephone conversation overnight after Ukraine and Russia sealed a deal meant to guarantee Russian natural-gas supplies to Ukraine through March 2015.
The leaders welcomed the gas deal.
The Kremlin statement said the agreement signed in Brussels late on October 30 was "an important step in the context of the future provision of uninterrupted transit of gas to Europe."
It also said the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of steps agreed on September 5 in an effort to end the conflict between Kyiv and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and underscored the need to observe the cease-fire that was central to that agreement.
It said Russia believes the "the establishment of a steady dialogue" between Kyiv and the separatists would "undoubtedly" help stabilize the situation.
But a statement from Poroshenko's office said "Ukraine, Germany, and France expressed [the] clear common position that they would not recognize the elections planned by separatists," which it said contradicted the September 5 agreements.
It said the three leaders "urged Russia not to recognize those elections as well."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Moscow would "of course recognize the results" of the separatists' elections.
LATEST: Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko says he has asked his party to back a proposal that Arseniy Yatsenyuk stay on as prime minister.