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Ukrainian servicemen ride in a tank close to the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk, a facility which has been the site of intense fighting for several weeks.
Ukrainian servicemen ride in a tank close to the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk, a facility which has been the site of intense fighting for several weeks.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

We have moved the Ukraine Crisis Live Blog. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please find it HERE.

11:19 2.7.2014

UNIAN news agency is citing an unnamed government source as saying the minister of economic development and trade, Pavlo Sheremeta, has resigned.

Bohdan Danylyshyn, who served in the post from 2007-2010, has been tapped as his possible successor.

11:15 2.7.2014

Is this a war for Donbas or all Ukraine? Listen in as RFE's Ukrainian Service talks LIVE to ex-President Leonid Kravchuk.

11:01 2.7.2014
Ihor Kolomoyskiy (left)
Ihor Kolomoyskiy (left)

​RFE's Ukrainian Service reports that Moscow's Basmanny Court has ordered the arrest in absentia of the head of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, Ihor Kolomoyskiy.

Russia's Investigative Committee claims that Kolomoyskiy was involved in "the organization of such crimes as murder, use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, hindering the work of journalists, and kidnappings."

Kolomoyskiy, an oligarch who accepted the Dnipr post in March, has supported Ukrainian army units involved in antiterrorist operations and has called for the formation of volunteer self-defense battalions.

The court said investigators are due to authorize law-enforcement authorities to establish Kolomoyskiy's location and take him into custody. They are also pursuing similar arrest warrants for Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and battalion commander Serhiy Melnychuk.

Kolomoyskiy, angered by the Russian annexation of Crimea, has in the past referred to Vladimir Putin as a "short schizophrenic." He has also referred to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych as a "tall schizophrenic."

10:38 2.7.2014

Ban Ki-moon spokesman Stephane Dujarric speaking July 1 in New York:

"The secretary-general is following with grave concern reports of renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine. He is extremely disappointed that the unilateral cease-fire declared by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko never achieved the momentum needed to end the violence."

10:35 2.7.2014

ICYMI: RFE correspondent Dmitry Volchek speaks to six highly skilled Russian professionals about why they're pulling up stakes in Russia and moving to Ukraine.

Aleksei Ivanov, IT developer:

"I don't consider myself someone with a revolutionary mindset. I'm a supporter of evolution. It seems to me that Russia is just running in place... They will let your business grow up until a point, but then they'll start to either interfere or insert some officials as your partners. That kind of situation doesn't suit me."

10:17 2.7.2014
Andrei Yurov
Andrei Yurov

Andrei Yurov, a leading Russian human rights activist who has spent the past seven months monitoring events in Ukraine, was attacked on the street July 1 in the southern Russian city of Voronezh.

Yurov says two men in black ski masks struck him from behind and sprayed his face with zelyonka, a bright green Soviet-era antiseptic. A large poster threatening local human rights activists appeared in Voronezh five days before the attack.

Yurov is a member of Russia's presidential human rights council and a member of a rights monitoring mission in Crimea. Human Rights Watch has called on Russian law enforcement to seriously examine the "possibility that Yurov was targeted for his legitimate human rights work in Russia and Crimea."

10:05 2.7.2014
Sergei Shoigu
Sergei Shoigu

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has reported to Vladimir Putin that more than 65,000 soldiers in Russia's Central Military District passed a snap inspection with flying colors.

Shoigu said the inspection "reaffirmed" that the troops are ready to deploy as far away as 3,000 kilometers in 72 hours.

Equipment included in the exercise included 177 aircraft, 56 helicopters, and 5,500 armored cars and vehicles.

The Kremlin press service cited Shoigu as saying that this was the eighth such spot check and that the results "are getting better and better each time."

09:51 2.7.2014

​Yesterday in Donetsk.

09:48 2.7.2014

Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin due to discuss the situation in Ukraine during brief talks today in Minsk.

09:43 2.7.2014

Novosti Donbassa: PrivatBank limiting temporarily limiting access to loans because of turbulent situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

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