Here's another update from RFE/RL's news desk:
Plans for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine were up in the air on January 16 amid persistent fighting.
Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine had been expected to meet in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on January 16.
But the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the talks would take place.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said that six soldiers had been killed and 18 wounded in the previous 24 hours.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces repelled several attempts by rebels to seize control of a terminal at the ruined international airport in Donetsk, the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.
He said the rebels had used artillery, tanks, mortars, and rockets in the offensive, and denied claims by separatists that they had taken the facility.
Lysenko said several other government positions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, whose capitals are held by the rebels, had come under fire.
Authorities in Donetsk said four people died overnight after shelling sparked a fire at a warehouse.
(Reuters, Interfax, AFP)
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Latest from our news desk on the Minsk non-talks:
Pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine were leaving Minsk on January 16 after proposed negotiations with Kyiv, Moscow, and representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) fell through.
Interfax quotes Denis Pushilin, the so-called deputy chairman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, as saying that “no meetings were held in Minsk" on January 16 and a date for new talks had not been set.
The talks were expected in the Belarusian capital on January 16 with representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE, and pro-Russian separatists who are fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.
A state-run Russian news agency, Sputnik, cited the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk as saying earlier on January 16 as saying that the meeting had been cancelled.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin also said on January 16 that a date for a new round of talks has not been set.
Barring any major developments that ends the live blogging for today.
From our newsroom:
Russian media are quoting spokespeople for the pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine as saying they have completely captured the embattled Donetsk airport from Ukrainian forces.
There is no independent confirmation of the January 17 reports.
The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed separatist source as saying the last 20 or so Ukrainian troops were forced out of the airport during fighting overnight.
A statement on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says Ukrainian troops at the airport were shelled several times during the night.
The airport has been the scene of near-constant fighting between the two sides, despite a formal cease-fire in the conflict that has been in place since September.
The UN Security Council announced on January 16 that it will meet next week to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. It will be the council's 27th meeting about the crisis, in which more than 4,700 people have been killed.
Based on reporting by Interfax, AFP, and ITAR-TASS