A priest stands in front of a hospital destroyed after shelling between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern city of Donetsk, Ukraine, on January 19.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

January 20, 2015 05:05 CET

Final Summary For January 20

-- A military spokesman says Ukrainian soldiers on January 20 came under attack from Russian regular forces in the north of the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.

-- Germany's foreign minister says he and his counterparts from Ukraine, Russia, and France will meet on January 21 in Berlin in a bid to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine.

-- The chief of Russian gas giant Gazprom says Ukraine's discount "winter price" for natural gas will end on April 1. Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said in a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that the price for Kyiv would be set in accordance with a long-standing contract, one Kyiv has long sought to change.

-- Russia says a European Union decision to keep sanctions against Russia in place shows the EU is not ready to change an "unfriendly course" toward Moscow. The EU's decision "only confirms the fact that the EU is still not ready to alter its unfriendly course or to give an objective assessment of the Kyiv authorities' actions," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

-- A Georgian man fighting on the Ukrainian side in the conflict in Ukraine has been killed in combat near the Donetsk airport, according to relatives. Media reports in Georgia quote members of Tamaz Sukhiashvili's family as saying he was killed in a battle near the bitterly contested airport on January 17.

-- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed deep concern over what it says is the "escalation" of violence between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine over the past two weeks. In a statement, the ICRC said the fighting in and around the city of Donetsk was killing civilians and "preventing" its team from carrying out its humanitarian work.

-- An explosion near a courthouse in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has wounded 14 people, four of them seriously.

-- Russia says Kyiv is trying to solve the crisis in eastern Ukraine through military force and that could lead to "irreversible consequences for Ukrainian statehood." Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin spoke to Interfax news agency as Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of ignoring appeals for a cease-fire to be respected.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv

14:46 16.1.2015

15:33 16.1.2015

Not so tangentially related.

16:44 16.1.2015

Savchenko has been refusing food for more than a month and her lawyer says the hunger strike has taken a toll on her health.

Read Andrei Shary and Claire Bigg on the Ukrainian Air Force pilot being held in Russia.

17:36 16.1.2015

17:50 16.1.2015

17:52 16.1.2015

Latest from our news desk on the Minsk non-talks:

Pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine were leaving Minsk on January 16 after proposed negotiations with Kyiv, Moscow, and representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) fell through.

Interfax quotes Denis Pushilin, the so-called deputy chairman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, as saying that “no meetings were held in Minsk" on January 16 and a date for new talks had not been set.

The talks were expected in the Belarusian capital on January 16 with representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE, and pro-Russian separatists who are fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.

A state-run Russian news agency, Sputnik, cited the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk as saying earlier on January 16 as saying that the meeting had been cancelled.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin also said on January 16 that a date for a new round of talks has not been set.

21:23 16.1.2015

Barring any major developments that ends the live blogging for today.

10:44 17.1.2015

A capture from a new drone video showing the devastation at Donetsk airport, where some of the most intense fighting has continued for months

From our newsroom:

Russian media are quoting spokespeople for the pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine as saying they have completely captured the embattled Donetsk airport from Ukrainian forces.

There is no independent confirmation of the January 17 reports.

The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed separatist source as saying the last 20 or so Ukrainian troops were forced out of the airport during fighting overnight.

A statement on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says Ukrainian troops at the airport were shelled several times during the night.

The airport has been the scene of near-constant fighting between the two sides, despite a formal cease-fire in the conflict that has been in place since September.

The UN Security Council announced on January 16 that it will meet next week to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. It will be the council's 27th meeting about the crisis, in which more than 4,700 people have been killed.

Based on reporting by Interfax, AFP, and ITAR-TASS

10:46 17.1.2015

The contract servicemen get the girls in this video that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is really, truly, actually using to try and recruit soldiers.

10:56 17.1.2015

Accessibility links

Follow Us

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)