An excerpt:
MARINKA, Ukraine -- In the night I wake with a start to the sounds of artillery and gunfire. The shelling is loud enough and close enough to shake the walls.
A stir from the body lying next to me. I look over at my brother, Drew, sleeping there. Both of us cocooned in our sleeping bags.
Above our bunk, Kalashnikovs, body armor, and grenades hang from the walls beside Ukrainian flags. On the table next to us, letters from the families of Ukrainian soldiers alongside bullets and grenades.
Ukrainian soldiers sleep in the room too, but I’m only aware of my brother’s breathing.
That concludes coverage of our Ukraine Live Blog for today. Please join us again tomorrow for more news.
Pro-Russia Crimean authorities are vowing to prevent Ukrainian radio and TV broadcasts from being received on the Ukrainian peninsula:
An estimated 44 towns and villages in Ukraine are without power due to heavy snowstoms:
Ukrainian Deputy Minister for Occupied Territories Heorhiy Tuka said in an interview with the Ukrainian Apostrof publication on December 3 that the government is dependent on coal from the occupied eastern regions of the country, TASS reported. "Coal is coming from Donbas as Ukraine cannot do without it," Tuka said, noting that one-third of homes in Ukraine are heated with coal from areas of the country controlled by separatists. Ihor Kononenko, a deputy head in the Pyotr Poroshenko Bloc, said Kyiv was buying coal from the Donbas because it is much cheaper than coal from South Africa.
A group of Ukrainian hackers claims to have discovered Russia's latest military doctrines on establishing air superiority:
A Radio Svoboda guide to depressing places in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk: