From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Germany’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development says it has sent a humanitarian aid convoy of more than 100 trucks to war-torn eastern Ukraine.
Economic Cooperation Minister Gerd Mueller said in a statement that the convoy is due to arrive in eastern Ukraine in mid-October.
He said the convoy is transporting mobile homes, field kitchens, radiators, electrical power generators, water and fuel tanks, winter clothing, bedding, camp beds, and hygiene kits.
Mueller said the humanitarian aid is estimated to be worth about $12 million and is meant “to send a signal of solidarity” that the people of Ukraine can count on Germany “as a reliable partner.”
The convoy is being accompanied by Polish police and fire services. It is due to cross from Poland into Ukraine early on October 7.
This concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Saturday, October 4. Please check back in the morning for our continuing coverage.
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.
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.