Our Ukrainian Service says the protests have closed parliament:
Demonstrators clashed with police outside the Ukrainian parliament during a raucous protest that prompted the legislature to go into recess.
Some of the protesters tried to push past police and enter parliament during the demonstration on October 14.
The protesters were demanding the Verkhovna Rada include on its agenda a draft law recognizing controversial World War II-era guerrilla resistance groups -- the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) -- as national heroes.
Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported some of the protesters were armed with sticks or clubs and fireworks were thrown at the parliament building and at police who were present in large numbers.
Some of the protesters were reportedly from the nationalist Svoboda party but party leader Oleh Tyahnybok denied Svoboda was involved.
Another nationalist group, Right Sector, posted a message on Twitter denying its members were involved. (with UNIAN and AP)
Moscow says sanctions not bringing peace to Ukraine, our news desk reports:
Russia's foreign minister has told European businesspeople that Western sanctions imposed on Moscow are not helping to resolve the Ukraine crisis.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a meeting of the Association of European Businesses (AEB) that the sanctions "do not contribute to de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine."
Lavrov told the October 14 meeting in Moscow that the sanctions are "harmful" and "unlawful" and would end up costing Europe some 40 billion euros this year and some 50 billion euros next year.
He did not explain the basis for these figures.
Lavrov said Russia laments the disruption in ties with the European Union that have accompanied the sanctions.
He assure the delegates Russia was interested in building energy cooperation with the EU, saying it would be beneficial to both sides. (TASS and Interfax)
More on the right-wing demo outside parliament:
The Crimean Desk of our Ukrainian Service says that two Crimean Tatars have been reported missing:
Two young Crimean Tatars have been reported missing in the capital of the annexed region, Simferopol.
Relatives of university student Artyom Dayrabekov told RFE/RL on October 14 that he and his friend Belyal Bilyalov had been missing for more than 24 hours.
They said they have asked police for help and visited the city's hospitals and morgues.
Human Rights Watch said earlier this month that at least five people, including three Crimean Tatars, remained missing after "hostile encounters" and that other Crimean Tatars have been found dead, with signs of torture, since the peninsula's annexation by Russia in March.
A 25-year-old Crimean Tatar man, Edem Asanov, was found dead last week after disappearing.
Most Crimean Tatars, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority native to Crimea, opposed the annexation.