LATEST: President Petro Poroshenko has said Kyiv remains a "firm supporter" of a peace plan for the country's east despite controversial elections held by pro-Russian rebels. He spoke at the start of a meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council. (AFP, Interfax)
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)
This ends our live-blogging for November 4. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
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.
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.