Russia issues Crimea banknote in move likely to irk Ukraine, Reuters reports:
Russia on Wednesday issued a new banknote dedicated to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed last year, in a move likely to anger Kiev which says it wants the territory back.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in March last year in a military operation denounced by the West which imposed retaliatory sanctions on Moscow that remain in place.
The new banknote, worth 100 rubles ($1.41), depicts a memorial to sunken ships in the port of Sevastopol, where Russia keeps its Black Sea Fleet, and the Swallow's Nest, a cliff top castle near Yalta.
The yellow-colored note also features a watermark of Empress Catherine the Great, who extended the borders of the Russian Empire in the eighteenth century to absorb Crimea.
Russia's central bank said in a statement it would issue 20 million of the new notes. It has previously minted a 10 rouble coin to celebrate Russia's control of Crimea.
The big news from overnight:
Ukraine, Separatists Agree To Cease-Fire During Holidays
Ukraine reached an agreement with Russia-backed separatists for a truce during the Christmas and New Year holidays that went into effect at midnight on December 22.
A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian peace negotiator said the new deal was forged in the Belarusian capital Minsk during the latest round of peace talks.
"We have an agreement about a complete and unconditional ceasefire that will begin at 00.00 hours on the night of December 22-23," said Darka Olifer, who is press secretary for Ukrainian negotiator and former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, writing on her Facebook page.
"This initiative is especially needed so that civilians who live in [the separatist east] can spend Christmas and the New Year holidays in peace."
"We express our expectations and hope that the people of eastern Ukraine can enjoy their New Year and Christmas days in peace and keep these conditions in the future," said Martin Sajdik, the head envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Most Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Russia celebrate Christmas on January 7.
A representative from the partially separatist-held Luhansk province said a new agreement was needed because of repeated violations of an existing truce that was loosely enforced.
Sajdik said the two sides had also agreed to limit their troop and tank movements along the 500-kilometer front.
"We have agreed that the sides will refrain from conducting any military maneuvers, and also reduce to a minimum any movement of forces," he said.
The warring sides had agreed to a September 1 truce that significantly reduced exchanges of artillery and missile fire along a 30-kilometer buffer zone separating the conflict area from the rest of Ukraine.
But a new upsurge in violence last week had threatened to unravel the September deal.
Kyiv on December 22 reported 30 truce breaches by the insurgents along the front line.
The United Nations says more than 9,000 people -- most of them civilians -- have died since the separatist revolt began in April 2014.
This ends our live blogging for December 22. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
U.S. expands sanctions list for Russians, Ukrainians:
The United States is adding nearly three dozen people and companies to its sanctions list for activity directly or indirectly connected to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
The list, released on December 22 by the U.S. Treasury Department, includes several top officials in the self-declared "people’s republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, regions of eastern Ukraine now largely under separatist control.
It also includes several companies connected to Russian businessmen with close ties to President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. The men include oil trader Gennady Timchenko and billionaire industrialists Arkady and Boris Rotenberg.
All were previously sanctioned under the first round announced by President Barack Obama in 2014, after Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.
Several top former Ukrainian officials were also included, such as Vitaliy Zakharchenko. The Treasury Department said that as interior minister he gave the order for police to fire on protesters during the Euromaidan protests in 2014.