From our newsroom, on this morning's news of a coalition deal:
Ukraine has formed a five-party ruling coalition comprising the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the Popular Front, Samopomich, the Radical Party, and Batkivshchyna.
The five pro-Western parties that passed the 5 percent threshold in last month's parliamentary elections control a total of 288 seats in the 421-seat parliament.
They initialed a draft agreement early on November 21 after hours of negotiations.
Ukrainian media reports quote participants as saying the coalition agreed that Ukraine's joining NATO will be its major goal, along with the return of Russian-occupied Crimea under Ukrainian control.
It also mentioned as a priority the protection of the legal interests of Crimean Tatars, as well as all Ukrainian citizens living in "occupied territories."
The parties also agreed on working together toward Ukraine’s integration into the European Union.
The coalition also called for permanent military bases in the country's east, where the Ukrainian army is fighting a pro-Russia insurgency,and for the allocation of at least 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product for defense.
Additionally, the parties agreed to cancel immunity for lawmakers, reform the election system, ban Soviet and Nazi symbols, and decentralize the power structure.
The parties also agreed to thoroughly investigate the killings of protesters on Kyiv’s Maidan -- Independence Square, in February 2014.
The agreement is expected to be officially presented in parliament later today.
Out of a total of 421 candidates elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the October 26 polls, 225 were elected based on party lists, and 196 in districts using a first-past-the-post electoral system.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who arrived to Kyiv on November 20, is holding talks with President Petro Poroshenko in the Ukrainian capital on November 21.
Based on reporting by UNIAN, liga.net , Interfax and pravda.ua.com
Russian "Novaya Gazeta" and Mashable photojournalist Yevgeny Feldman says he's "passed the Ukrainian border," so unclear whether banned, deported, or otherwise excluded by Ukrainian authorities he has apparently been allowed into Ukraine:
After a scare. Here is one fellow journalist's take on the ban threat: