By RFE/RL
A lawyer for Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who was detained in Moscow on March 1, says that a court hearing for his client has been canceled and he will return to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Lawyer Mark Feigin said on March 2 that his client would leave for Kyiv "on the first available flight."
Honcharenko was detained ahead of a march in memory of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on February 27.
Honcharenko says he was beaten and spent five hours in police custody before release.
He had been ordered to appear in court on March 2 for a hearing on suspicion of refusing to comply with police demands, but Moscow police said earlier in the day that they had "no claims" against him.
The Russian Investigative Committee had said Honcharenko was being questioned about what Russian authorities say was his alleged involvement in a deadly fire that broke out in his home city, Odesa, during rival demonstrations by Ukrainians and pro-Russian separatists.
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Russia says its long-range bombers will continue patrolling various parts of the world in the future and may extend the flights into additional regions.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on March 2, "Such flights are performed regularly, and we are not planning to abandon this practice."
Shoigu added that Russia will "explore new combat patrolling areas in the future" for its strategic bombers, taking into account "international cooperation with our allies in other regions of the world."
He also said Russia will modernize 13 strategic -- or long-range -- aircraft this year.
By 2020, he said, some 70 percent of the fleet would be modernized.
NATO-member country planes have intercepted Russian aircraft many times in the past year amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's interferemce in Ukraine.
Russia has also staged a series of drills that have alarmed its post-Soviet neighbors and the West.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Ukrainians of Czech descent have started leaving eastern Ukraine for the Czech Republic.
Czech Radio reported on March 1 that a bus carrying 40 people whose ancestors came to Ukraine when it was part of the Russian empire in the 19th century left the village of Chekhohrad -- which means Czech city -- in the southeastern Zaporizhzhya region.
The village, populated mainly by descendants of Czech immigrants, lies about 200 kilometers west of the front line in the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed rebels, which has killed more than 6,000 people since April.
Fighting has decreased following a February 12 cease-fire agreement.
At total of 138 Ukrainians of Czech descent are expected to arrive in the Czech Republic in the coming weeks.
Czech officials say all repatriates will be provided with housing, jobs, and medical insurance.
Ukrainian media reports say some 20,000 Ukrainians have Czech roots.
In the late 1990s, the Czech government repatriated some 200 citizens of Kazakhstan who had Czech roots.