From our News Desk:
Ukraine's Batkivshchyna party has kicked out hundreds of members from its ranks as part of the country's lustration campaign.
The party's leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, told the ICTV television channel on September 12 that 1,518 members of her party had been expelled after their "dishonest" activities were revealed during implementation of the lustration law.
According to Tymoshenko, checks revealed that some individuals representing her party in Ukraine's parliament and regional power structures "dishonestly" voted for "illegal" land distribution and state budget allocations during the last 2 1/2 years.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the lustration bill into law on October 9.
Under the law, up to 1 million public servants, including cabinet ministers, will be screened for loyalty to root out the corrupt practices of the administration of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council:
From our News Desk:
Aleksandr Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine, has been officially registered as a candidate in elections planned for the region, which is currently under the control of pro-Russian separatists.
Roman Lyahin, the so-called chairman of the election commission in the DNR, announced on October 13 that Zakharchenko had received clearance to run in elections planned for next month.
Lyahin said Zakharchenko was the first candidate to hand in all the required documents and so will be the first name appearing on ballots.
It was unclear if any other candidates would be registered.
Last week, Lyahin said Zakharchenko was the only person collecting signatures to register.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said any local elections held in Ukraine must be conducted in accordance with Ukrainian laws, indicating Kyiv will not consider the polls planned for Donetsk or Luhansk, another separatist-held region in eastern Ukraine, to be legitimate.