Two RFE/RL stringers ran for cover during a mortar attack by Russian-backed separatists near the town of Novhorodske in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region on December 22. The latest fighting came just before a new cease-fire agreement reached in Minsk went into effect at midnight. (Vitaly Grynyov and Artem Lyuti, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Kyiv, separatists accuse each other of violating truce, AFP reports:
Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels accused each other of violating a holiday ceasefire Wednesday, just hours after it came into force in the war-torn country's east.
"Illegal armed groups have already violated these agreements. Since the beginning of the day we recorded seven enemy shellings of our positions," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
The sides had agreed Tuesday to halt all fire and manoeuvres starting from midnight to last through the Christmas and New Year's holidays, but Lysenko said rebels were using heavy weapons, including multiple rocket launchers.
Separatist authorities rejected the accusations and said they were "fully" implementing the ceasefire agreements, accusing Ukrainian forces of "continuing to shell" their territory with mortars and using small arms.
Military spokesman Eduard Basurin said Ukrainian troops have attacked Zaytseve, a village 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of rebel stronghold Donetsk, as well as near Donetsk airport and the town of Gorlivka.
"They do not fulfil their obligations," he told AFP.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists, who declared two "people's republics" in eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, have fought since April 2014, with over 9,000 people killed in the violence that Kiev blames on Moscow.
A series of truce agreements have helped significantly dampen the hostilities though sporadic clashes have continued near the line of contact and the two sides regularly accuse each other of violations.
As mentioned earlier, Russia has issued a Crimea banknote:
Russia has issued a new banknote dedicated to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed illegally by the Kremlin last year.
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 clifftop 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 18th 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-ruble coin to celebrate Russia's control of Crimea.
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. (Reuters, AFP, Interfax)
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
