During a joint press conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the achieved ceasefire would hopefully allow the pullout of heavy arms.

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20141209/1015653742.html

heavy artillery and Grads, good. I hope they follow through.

If you read it, Lavrov says the Russian military "helped organize" the day of silence, so he isn't denying they are there.

Then if they manage to get through the prisoner exchanges without too much bickering, we might have a chance it will hold.

It is an interesting way to resolve this. One question I have is that that regime will include all the areas destroyed by the fighting. If it is neither Russia or Ukraine, who rebuilds it. If it is not rebuilt, it seems likely to be the type of failed state that could harm both its neighbors.

Not to mention, pulling that area - as well as Crimea out of Ukraine, has to change a near 50/50 pro Europe population to a much more solid majority pro western.

It has been obvious that sanctions are hurting Russia. This is the first sign that they are beginning to make Putin recalculate. (Even if his intent is to absorb the silent regime at some point, he loses the bulk of Ukraine for at least years as a consequence.)

The idea is to stop fighting so you can talk. I don't know why they thought they needed a new euphemism, but they did. Maybe because the last one didn't work.

"Who pays?" is indeed the correct question, but I think we are yet a long way from answering it, since it is clear that nobody wants to pay, and I don't see that anybody can be compelled to pay (except Ukraine of course.)

then ships more arms and troops to Ukraine tomorrow. Putin would have been good for the role of Two-face in Batman.

(Reuters) - Russia is concerned by the behavior of German leaders and Europe may suffer if Berlin stops playing a constructive role in relations between Moscow and the West, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Ties between Berlin and Moscow have been strained in recent weeks and Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Russia over the weekend of interfering in the domestic affairs of countries that are seeking closer ties with the European Union.

"We can't not express our concern over what our German colleagues are doing," Lavrov told a news conference.

"Germany has traditionally played a very constructive role regarding EU ties with Russia and the West as a whole with Russia. If Germany would decide to move to issuing orders, then Europe wouldn't win from that and neither would Germany."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/09/us-russia-germany-lavrov-idUSKBN0JN14Z20141209?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged Russia to end the conflict over Ukraine, suggesting she’ll keep pointing the finger at the Kremlin as long as needed.

In a speech to a convention of her Christian Democratic Union today, Merkel said “what’s been happening for months in Ukraine threatens Europe’s peaceful order.” She accused Russia of violating international law and criticized it for thinking in terms of “spheres of influence.”

“We won’t overcome these problems if we don’t speak the plain truth,” Merkel said to applause from national delegates at the meeting in Cologne, Germany. “Our goal is a territorially intact Ukraine that can decide about its future in a free and self-determined way. The road is stony and it requires stamina.”

Merkel, 60, who grew up under Communism in former East Germany, has led Europe’s response to the crisis in Ukraine that’s escalated into fighting between pro-Russian separatists and government forces in the east since Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in March.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-09/merkel-says-russian-role-in-ukraine-must-be-named-shamed.html

Ukraine began importing Russian gas for the first time in almost six months, reducing the temptation to siphon off fuel piped across the country to the rest of Europe during freezing winter months.

Ukraine will receive as much as 43.5 million cubic meters of natural gas a day for the coming month from OAO Gazprom, the Russian state exporter, Maxim Bilyavskiy, a spokesman for pipeline operator UkrTransGaz, said by phone. That’s equal to about a fifth of the current demand in Ukraine, which has relied on supplies from Europe through so-called reverse flows.

Russia halted gas to Ukraine on June 16 over a price and debt dispute as relations soured over its annexation of Crimea and involvement in unrest in its neighbor’s easternmost regions. The European Union, relying on gas piped through Ukraine for 15 percent of its needs, brokered an interim deal in October to help avoid shortages seen in 2006 and 2009 during the winter.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-12-09/ukraine-resumes-russia-gas-imports-curbing-european-supply-risk

Ukraine's Naftogaz has sent $378.22 million to Russia as advance payment for natural gas supplies, which should lead to the resumption of shipments that were suspended nearly six months ago in a dispute over the prices Moscow had set for the fuel and debts Kiev owed for previous shipments.

Russia's Gazprom said Dec. 7 that it had received the payment, which had been made the day before. Under an agreement signed between the two government-owned gas companies, the flow of gas was to resume within 48 hours after payment.

The payments and the flow of gas come just in time, as wintry weather settles on Ukraine. It also is good news for Russia's gas customers in the European Union, Alexander Paraschiy, an energy analyst at Concorde Capital in Kiev, told Bloomberg News. "Russian gas paid for [now] cuts the risk of shortages in Ukraine and in Europe-bound transit at least until the middle of February," he said.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/09/ukraine-sends-russia-huge-advance-payment-for-gas.aspx

SINGAPORE: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is in Singapore for a two-day working visit, called on President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana on Tuesday (Dec 9).

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry said the leaders reaffirmed the friendly Singapore-Ukraine ties. They also exchanged views on global developments, including the ongoing tensions in eastern Ukraine.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ukraine-president-in/1520366.html

Japan has expanded sanctions against Russia and two separatist Ukrainian regions ahead of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tokyo next year, news agency TASS reported Tuesday, citing Japan's Foreign Ministry.

The new sanctions list targets 26 individuals and 14 organizations, the majority of which are tied to the leaders of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics. Clashes between the two self-declared republics and Ukrainian government forces have continued despite a September cease-fire agreement.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry has not yet published the names of those sanctioned, but said they held a "direct connection to the joining of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia, as well as the destabilization of Ukraine's east," TASS reported.

While the move marks a toughening of Tokyo's stance, Japan's sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea and support of Ukrainian separatists fall short of wide-ranging U.S. and European measures targeting Russia's banking, defense and energy industries.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/japan-widens-russia-sanctions-list-ahead-of-putin-visit/513027.html

Moscow (dpa) - Despite reports of individual shootings, a one-day ceasefire between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was largely holding on Tuesday.

The "Day of Silence" was interrupted by at least two shootings in the town of Debaltsevo, National Security Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kiev, according to an official transcript.

Lysenko stressed that the 24-hour truce lasts until Wednesday morning (0800 GMT). "We will only draw conclusions afterwards," he said.

A militia commander in Donetsk told the Interfax news agency that the Ukrainian military had twice fired at the separatist positions at the city's airport.

http://www.dpa-international.com/news/international/despite-shootings-one-day-ceasefire-in-ukraine-largely-holding-a-43555983.html

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday (9 December) that an easing of tensions in eastern Ukraine was still a long way off, despite an announcement by Kiev that it had suspended combat operations against pro-Russian rebels.

Lavrov said negotiations meant to accompany the unilateral truce, dubbed the "Day of Silence" in Ukraine, would take place in 'the coming days', though no day has been set for the talks.

Speaking about steps taken in previous months to reduce tensions in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels took up arms in April, Lavrov told RIA news agency in an interview: "As of yet, it is fully obvious that we are far from that goal."

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of arming the rebels and supplying them with troops, charges Moscow denies.

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/russias-lavrov-says-easing-east-ukraine-tensions-long-way-310685

AMSTERDAM (AP) — A convoy of eight trucks carrying wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster arrived at a Dutch military base Tuesday, as the official investigation into the cause of the crash continues nearly five months after the plane went down in eastern Ukraine.

Flight 17 was shot down on July 17 over territory held by pro-Russia rebels, killing all 298 passengers and crew — most of them Dutch. International teams seeking to retrieve human remains and salvage evidence have had difficulty reaching the crash site due to clashes between Ukrainian and rebel forces. Six victims have yet to be identified.

Tjibbe Joustra, who heads the Dutch Safety Board that is leading the international investigation into the crash's cause, said investigators will now further photograph, scan and categorize the wreckage at the Gilze-Rijen military base in the south of the Netherlands. They plan later to reassemble part of the Boeing 777 in a hangar.

"It will take several months before we have a reconstruction of parts of the aircraft," he said.

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Wreckage-from-Ukraine-plane-crash-in-Netherlands-5944711.php

I don't want to spam the board, and I like to keep them in bunches so they are easier to find and compare.
And it doesn't take me much extra time.