From our newsroom:
Russia is accusing Kyiv of trying to "strangle" separatist-held territories in eastern Ukraine by cutting off payments and shutting state institutions in the rebel-controlled areas.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Moscow's calls for the Ukrainian government to hold talks with the pro-Russian separatists who have seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in a war that has killed more than 4,100 people since April.
Instead, Lavrov said, "Kyiv has set a course for the socioeconomic strangulation of southeastern Ukraine and is threatening to revive (efforts to) resolve the conflict by force."
Kyiv's moves are a response to elections held by the separatists on November 2, which Ukraine and the West condemned as an illegal violation of a September 5 peace plan, and what Kyiv says are Russian-supported military buildup by the rebels.
Lavrov, speaking at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk, also said Russia has always seen the European Union as a "big, important economic partner" and hopes the point of no return in ties with the EU has not been reached.
Based on reporting by Interfax, TASS, and AFP
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is due later today in Kyiv for talks on resolving the crisis in eastern Ukraine. He'll hold talks with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Russian agency TASS reports that Steinmeier is scheduled to fly on to Moscow later in the day to meet with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for talks expected to focus on Ukraine.
The planned meetings come one day after EU governments moved to put more Ukrainian separatists under asset freezes and travel bans. But EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, took no action to step up economic sanctions on Russia despite voicing alarm about an upsurge of violence in eastern Ukraine.
EU foreign ministers asked officials to put forward names of an unspecified number of pro-Russian separatists to be added to the EU's sanctions list by the end of the month.
This ends our live-blogging for November 17. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.