And here's a Ukraine-related item from our Washington desk:
WASHINGTON -- A State Department official has said U.S. efforts to counter misinformation and propaganda generated by the Kremlin will be a long-term effort that includes bolstering independent media in Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
Benjamin Ziff, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that the Obama administration had proposed a 26 percent increase -- to $83 million -- in funding for the coming fiscal year for civil society groups and independent media “in countries most vulnerable to Russian pressure.”
"The free flow of reliable information is our best defense," Ziff testified in the November 3 hearing.
"We view this work against the Kremlin propaganda as not necessarily a short term effort; this is a medium- and long-term effort to make sure there is no fertile ground in Europe or Eurasia for the kind of efforts they are doing," he said.
Ziff also said the U.S. administration has not ruled out supplying lethal weaponry and military equipment to Ukraine's military.
He added that the administration was considering prolonging economic sanctions again Russia if the provisions of the Minsk cease-fire agreement aren't fully implemented in eastern Ukraine. That agreement, signed by Ukrainian and separatist officials, called for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry and greater access to humanitarian aid, among other things.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine has largely ebbed, though Ziff said since that, September 1, there have been 17 deaths and 50 wounded due to sporadic violence in parts of that region.
He did not specify whether the casualties were regular Ukraine soldiers, volunteer militias or Russian-backed separatists.
The conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists has killed more than 7,900 people since it erupted in April 2014.
Caution: Tanks Crossing -- we're not sure about the authenticity of this image, but Twitter is saying it's a photo of a street sign in eastern Ukraine:
Not directly related to Ukraine's crisis, but this sort of stuff doesn't portray the country in a good light (particularly in the West):
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this item that came off our news desk overnight:
Ukrainian authorities said they will buy natural gas from Russia until the end of the year, but will purchase all Ukraine's gas from Europe in the first quarter of 2016 if Russia does not offer a competitive price.
"We expect and hope that Russian gas sellers will be rational and propose competitive prices to us," Naftogaz Chief Executive Andriy Kobolev said at a company briefing in Kyiv on November 3.
"If there is no such offer we will be purchasing all gas from Europe," he said.
Kobolev said that no additional agreement needs to be signed on first-quarter gas purchases, as it is possible for Ukraine to act within the framework of documents signed earlier this year.
He added that Naftogaz Ukrainy is expecting "a serious fall" in gas prices, starting in the second quarter of next year.
(Reuters, Interfax, TASS)
We are now closing the live blog for today, but until we resume again tomorrow morning, you can keep up with all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here.