Oliver Carroll appears to be providing the very latest news on the bleak situation facing Ukrainian troops at Donetsk airport, where pro-Russian outlets already claim that enemies of Kyiv control the whole facility.
From our newsroom, via Russian agencies:
Ukrainian government officials have denied Russian media reports that pro-Moscow separatists have fully captured the Donetsk airport.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kyiv on January 17 that Ukrainian forces "are continuing to keep this strategic site under their control." Lysenko added that separatist militias have attempted repeated attacks and have "sustained heavy losses."
Earlier the same day, Russian media cited an unnamed separatist spokesperson as saying the last 20 or so Ukrainian troops on the territory of the airport had been driven out 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 and ITAR-TASS
Latest daily map from Ukrainian authorities.
The Economist says of Ukraine's economy "On The Edge":
Default would sap domestic confidence in Ukraine’s leadership and roil the currency markets again. George Soros, a financier, is arguing for aid before reforms and promoting a $50 billion package. Such a sum has little chance of being found, but he raises a big question about Ukraine’s importance. A Ukrainian collapse would prove Mr Putin’s contention that Western promises mean little and that change in the post-Soviet world leads only to pain. The West may soon have to decide: what is Ukraine worth?