Good morning...
Barring any major developments, that ends the live blogging for tonight.
Ukrainian military says soldier killed, three wounded:
The Ukrainian military says that one soldier has been killed and three wounded over the previous 24 hours in the country's east despite a six-week-old cease-fire with Russian-backed rebels.
Colonel Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of Ukrainian armed forces fighting the separatists, said on March 30 neither tanks nor artillery were used over that period.
But he said the situation remained tense in the towns of Shyrokyne and Hranitne, near the key government-held city of Mariupol in the Donetsk region, and in the Luhansk region town of Tryokhizbenka.
He said rebels forces fired at Ukrainian units in or near those towns.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since April 2014 in the conflict between government forces and the rebels, who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including their capitals.
Fighting has eased under a cease-fire agreement signed in February, but prospects for a settlement are clouded by disputes over the European-brokered deal. (with UNIAN and Interfax)
Soros ready to invest in Ukraine, with Western help:
Billionaire financier George Soros said he is prepared to invest $1 billion in Ukraine if Western countries help support private investment there.
In an interview published by Austrian newspaper Der Standard on March 30, Soros said, "I stand ready."
He said there were "concrete investment ideas, for example in agriculture and infrastructure projects."
Soros said the West could help make Ukraine more attractive to investors by protecting them against political risks -- possibly by providing financing "at EU interest rates -- very close to zero."
Ukraine is seeking cash and investment as it struggles with a Russian-backed rebellion in the east that has exacerbated its economic problems.
Chinese company CITIC Construction said on March 26 it would provide Ukraine with $15 billion in low-rate loans over 15 years to help support construction of affordable housing.
The International Monetary Fund approved a $17.5 billion bailout for Ukraine earlier this month. (Reuters, Kyiv Post, Emergingequity.org, AFP)
EU officials postpone visit to Kyiv:
EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini has postponed a planned visit to Ukraine on March 30 after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker did the same.
President Petro Poroshenko's office said on March 28 that Juncker told Poroshenko he was postponing his visit "due to unforeseen health conditions."
Poroshenko's office said the visit would be held at a later date.
Mogherini's visit was also called off.
Juncker and Mogherini had been expected to express support for Ukraine's pro-Western government, which is struggling with a Russian-backed rebellion in the east and severe economic troubles.
Former President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to spurn a major agreement with the EU in November 2013 led to protests that drove him from power.
Russia then seized Ukraine's Crimea region and lent support to separatists whose war with government forces has killed more than 6,000 people since April 2014. (with UNIAN, TASS, Interfax)