A nice report on fire-fighting under fire in eastern Ukraine:
From Reuters -- Ukraine's currency plunges as cease-fire worries grow:
Ukraine's currency lost nearly 5 percent of its value on Monday after a weekend that saw the heaviest shelling in a month hit the main rebel stronghold in the east and signs that Moscow had dispatched troops and tanks to reinforce separatists.
The prospect that a two-month-old ceasefire could collapse and all-out war return to eastern Ukraine has weighed down the economy and helped drive the currency 12 percent lower since the central bank abandoned an unofficial peg a week ago.
The country of 46 million people is near bankruptcy, dependent on international loans, and deeply in debt for natural gas to Russia, the former imperial master it accuses of waging war on behalf of separatists on its territory.
The central bank offered to sell dollars on Monday at 15.2 hryvnias to the dollar, an all-time low and 4.8 percent lower than the last auction on Friday.
The bank abandoned a peg of 12.95 to the dollar a week ago, leaving the currency in free-fall. It said on Monday it believed the fall would now stop and the currency would settle between 15 and 16 to the dollar.
After fighting over the summer that killed 4,000 people, a truce has largely held between government forces and separatists in the east. But it appears to be fraying in recent days.
Kiev says Moscow has sent an armored column of additional reinforcements to aid the pro-Russian separatists in enclaves populated mainly by Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians, which the Kremlin now refers to as "New Russia".
Moscow denies that its troops have fought in Ukraine, even though many of them have died there.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a body that includes Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Western European countries and operates in east Ukraine with the permission of all sides, confirmed that a column of troops and tanks without insignia had been spotted in rebel held territory.
Reuters reporters in Donetsk, the biggest city in rebel held territory, said sporadic shelling could still be heard on Monday, although not as intense as Sunday when it reached a level unseen since early October.
The artillery fire has come from territory held by both sides, mainly near the ruins of the city's airport, which is still held by government forces.
Washington urges Moscow to "stop fueling the fire" of Ukraine conflict:
The United States is urging Russia to "stop fueling the fire" in eastern Ukraine with new weapons and other support for pro-Russian separatists there.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington condemned "Russia's increased militarization of the Donbas region through the provision of tanks and other heavy equipment to separatists."
Her comments in Washington on November 10 come days after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said its monitors had witnessed an apparent buildup of heavy weapons and tanks in parts of the Donetsk region controlled by the separatists.
Psaki accused Russia and the separatists of "blatant violations" of a cease-fire signed in Minsk on September 5, and warned that the costs to Moscow will rise if it "continues its destabilizing and dangerous actions."
Psaki said Moscow must do more if it truly wants peace in eastern Ukraine.
"If Russia is truly committed to Minsk and peace in Ukraine, it will stop fueling the fire with new weapons and support for separatists and withdraw all Russian military personnel and equipment from Ukraine; and it will call on its proxies to stop cease-fire violations, release hostages, and close the international [Russian-Ukrainian] border," Psaki said.
The United States and European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Moscow since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March and began backing pro-Russian rebels who rose up in the two eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The past week has seen the truce deteriorate, after the rebels staged elections and inaugurated leaders, steps Kyiv and the West say violate the Minsk cease-fire agreement.
The OSCE confirmed on November 8 that a column of troops and tanks without insignia had been spotted in rebel-held territory.
Moscow denies sending troops or arms into Ukraine.
But Psaki noted the Kremlin has declared the circumstances of deaths of Russian soldiers allegedly killed in Ukraine a state secret.
"We know that the families of those killed in action may never have the comfort of knowing from their own government what truly happened to their sons now that their fate has been declared a state secret," Psaki said.
In a blog posting earlier on November 10, a newspaper publisher and local lawmaker in the Russian city of Pskov said Russian military prosecutors had refused to provide details on the circumstances of the deaths of 12 servicemen who died away from their posts earlier this year.
Lev Shlosberg has gathered evidence suggesting Russian soldiers have died in eastern Ukraine.
He was badly beaten by unidentified assailants after his newspaper published an investigation into the funerals of two paratroopers in August.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Monday, November 10. Please check back here on Tuesday morning for our continuing coverage. You can find breaking developments here.