The AP news agency is reporting a potentially big development:
SNIZHNE, Ukraine (AP) — Associated Press reporters have seen more than 80 unmarked military vehicles on the move in rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, indicating that intensified hostilities may lie ahead.
Three separate columns were seen Saturday morning, one near the main separatist stronghold of Donetsk and two outside the town of Snizhne, 80 kilometers (50 miles) further east. The vehicles were mainly transportation trucks, some of them carrying small and large caliber artillery systems, and at least one armored personnel carrier.
Ukrainian officials said this week that they believe rebel forces have received substantial consignments of weaponry and manpower from Russia. Moscow denies such claims.
Despite a cease-fire being reached in September, Ukrainian and rebel troops engage on a regular basis, with some of the heaviest fighting focused on Donetsk airport.
According to our news desk, it seems Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott might have a chance to "shirtfront" Vladimir Putin pretty soon:
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today that he will have a "robust" conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 when they meet at a Beijing summit.
The Kremlin confirmed yesterday that Putin has agreed to meet with Abbott, who has been promising since last month to confront the Russian leader about the deaths of Australians in the tragedy.
The meeting is expected on November 11 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Putin's foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov says "it will be short."
Abbott said he will demand that Russia "be as good as its word, that it will fully cooperate with the investigations that are under way, and that it will do what it can to ensure that justice is done."
The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Malaysia when it was shot down over territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatist fighters.
(AFP, Interfax, TASS)
Good Morning. We'll start the live blog today with an update on Kyiv's claims that some heavy duty Russian military hardware made its way into Ukraine on Thursday evening:
The Pentagon's spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby, says he has "no independent operational reporting" to confirm Kyiv’s claim that Russia sent an armored column into eastern Ukraine on November 6.
Kirby said the Pentagon can confirm "a continued presence " of unhelpful Russian battalion tactical groups "right across the border" in Russian territory that is "doing nothing to decrease the tension in the region."
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko says a Russian column with 32 Russian tanks, 16 howitzer artillery pieces, and 30 trucks of ammunition and soldiers, crossed into eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region on November 6.
He said another Russian column of trucks and mobile radar stations crossed into Ukraine at a nearby border point.
NATO says that if the deployments are confirmed, it would be further evidence of Moscow's direct military support for pro-Russian separatists who continue to fight Ukrainian government forces despite a September 5 cease-fire agreement.
(Reuters, AP, AFP)
We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back tomorrow morning. In the meantime, you can keep up with all our ongoing Ukrainian coverage here.
Crimean leader Mustafa Dzhemilev sparked an Internet meme last month when he responded to comments by Czech President Milos Zeman in April, who said the West should recognize the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. Dzhemilev said: "I was jailed for 3 years, after publicly opposing the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. And today, the Czech president asks me to accept the Russian annexation of Crimea."
Now his words have been translated into Czech and pasted on billboards in the Central European country, as you can see in this video from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service (natural sound):
