TODAY: Fighting in Donetsk claims two lives; OSCE mission also under fire; Poroshenko and Putin talk; Christmas comes early for Notre Dame as Russia woos France. Ruble hit badly by OPEC decision on oil production; Sechin remains confident about Rosneft’s prospects. Military overhaul gaining pace; banker placed on Interpol list; doctors hope to give Putin a taste of his own medicine.

A 12-year-old boy and a 55-year-old woman have been killed by shelling in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, in Ukraine’s east, despite the ceasefire agreement.  A patrol of the Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE has also been fired upon in the south-east of the country.  President Putin has reportedly had a ‘constructive talk‘ with Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, the first evidence of dialogue between the two men in almost a month.  A Levada poll has found that a majority of Russians believe their country’s troops are not fighting in eastern Ukraine, but nearly 50% would be glad if it turned out they in fact were.  War, this article suggests, has consistently done wonders for Putin’s popularity ratings.  Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has received a gift from Russia in the form of a large Christmas tree, a present which, Russia’s ambassador to France says, has nothing to do with the thwarted Mistral warship deal.  France has chosen to award Lyudmila Ulitskaya, a Russian novelist highly critical of Moscow’s Ukraine policy, the Legion d’honneur.