New from Reuters:
Separatists Say Ukraine Has Violated Peace Deal
DONETSK, Ukraine, Nov 5 (Reuters) -- Separatist leaders in east Ukraine accused President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday of violating a peace deal by deciding to suspend a law giving their regions a "special status" and signalled they would no longer abide by it.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in the Donbass region said the decision undermined a protocol agreed at talks on Sept. 5 in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, under which a ceasefire went into effect in east Ukraine.
Poroshenko, who accuses the rebels of violating the Minsk agreement by holding leadership elections on Sunday, said on Tuesday that he wanted parliament to scrap the law offering "special status" to the eastern regions.
The law would have given Donetsk and Luhansk limited rights to run their own affairs and shield separatist fighters from prosecution.
"Kiev's cancellation of the special status for Donbass causes serious damage to the Mink peace process," the pro-Russian separatists said in a joint statement.
Signalling they believed this nullified the Minsk agreements, they added: "The DNR and LNR cannot act on the basis of a document from which Poroshenko has removed fundamentally important points."
They said they were ready to renegotiate the Minsk agreement, intended to help end a conflict in which more than 4,000 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the separatists rose up against Kiev's rule in mid-April.
Poroshenko has said he will propose a new law to provide a "special economic zone" for the Donbass region and set a new date for hoped-for Ukrainian-run local elections, originally planned for early December.
An excerpt from 'We Simply Survive': What Life Is Like For Ukrainian Prisoners Of War," by Christopher Miller in Mashable:
ILOVAISK, Ukraine -- Ruslan Tinkalyuk cut a forlorn figure as he took a long, slow drag on a Chesterfield cigarette. Dirty and unkempt, he was curled up by a small barrel fire amid the rubble of an apartment destroyed by a rocket in this war-torn eastern Ukrainian town.
He should have been with his family in Ivano-Frankivsk, a charming provincial city nestled at the edge of the Carpathian Mountains, watching autumn turn the sprawling forests their vibrant seasonal hues.
Instead he was here –- a prisoner of war, being closely watched by gun-toting, pro-Russian rebels.
Read the whole story here.
From RFE/RL's News Desk late last night, to kick off our coverage of the Ukraine crisis for November 5:
Kyiv says it has paid the first tranche of its debt to Russia's Gazprom, fulfilling the terms of an EU-brokered deal signed last week.
Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz said November 4 it transferred $1.45 billion to Russia’s Gazprom.
The October 30 accord calls for Ukraine to pay $3.1 billion in two tranches by the end of the year.
Gazprom has said it would restart gas supplies to Ukraine as soon as Kyiv repaid the first debt tranche, as well as $760 million up front for November supplies.
Naftogaz did not refer to a payment for November gas in its November 4 statement.
Moscow raised the price it was asking Kyiv pay for gas earlier this year and stopped supplying gas to Ukraine in June, citing $5.3 billion in debt and demanding advance payment for future supplies.
This ends our live-blogging for November 4. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Poroshenko and his security team consider Minsk agreement:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is meeting with his security chiefs to reexamine the peace accord with pro-Russian separatists two days after they staged elections he has dismissed as a "farce."
Speaking at the start of the meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council on November 4, Poroshenko said the gathering will consider repealing a law that was passed in accordance with a peace plan agreed on September 5 in Minsk.
The law grants limited autonomy to the two separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko has said the November 2 elections in rebel-held parts of eastern Ukraine are a "gross violation of the September 5 Minsk protocol."
Earlier on November 4, two separatist leaders were sworn into office as the heads of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic. (Interfax and AFP)