Good morning. This is the top Ukraine news story this morning:
Ukraine Signs New Russian Gas Deal
Kyiv has signed a new agreement to buy Russian gas over the next three months at a price of $248 per thousand cubic meters.
In a statement posted on its website, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said the agreement extended all the other terms of the so-called "winter package" which just expired between Ukrainian state energy concern Naftogaz and Russian gas giant Gazprom.
That deal, brokered by the European Union and signed in October, included a price discount of $100 per thousand cubic meters but required Kyiv to pay up front for gas deliveries.
The statement quoted Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn as saying the agreement represented a "victory" for an economic rather than a political approach to relations between Naftogaz and Gazprom.
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had reached a deal with Moscow to purchase gas for $285 per 1,000 cubic meters, but after his ouster in February 2014 Russia demanded $485 as well as full payment of Ukraine's multibillion dollar gas debt.
Previous gas disputes between Ukraine and Russia have resulted in reduced supplies to the EU, where Gazprom covers a third of gas demand.
Around 40 percent of that gas travels via Ukraine.
This ends our live-blogging for April 1. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Russia’s recent “snap inspection” military exercises in Western and Southern Military Districts and the defense ministry’s plans to reinforce conventional deployments in Crimea generate an impression of revived Russian military power. However, Russia’s relatively careful and low-scale use of military power in Ukraine since February 2014, problems identified during the various snap inspection exercises, as well as limitations in the capacity of the defense ministry to solve water supply issues in Crimea appear to offer ample evidence of deep and systemic Russian military weakness.
Germany's Merkel says Minsk cease-fire not fully implemented:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says fighting in eastern Ukraine has been reduced in recent weeks but that the Minsk cease-fire plan has not yet been fully implemented.
Merkel and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said after talks in Berlin on April 1 that Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine were still involved in fighting along the front line.
A cease-fire agreement agreed to in Minsk in February has ended much of the fighting and led to some heavy weapons being pulled back.
But Merkel said all of the heavy weapons held by Ukrainian forces and rebel fighters must be removed from the front line before the next stage of the peace plan can be implemented.
Yatsenyuk said 75 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and many injured since the cease-fire began on February 15.
Merkel also said the details for a 500 million-euro ($550 million) German loan to be granted to Ukraine had not yet been finalized, and she praised Yatsenyuk's government for making "considerable progress" on reforms. (Reuters, Interfax)
U.S. senators urge FIFA to take World Cup away from Russia:
Thirteen U.S. senators have written to FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, urging the organization to replace Russia as host of the 2018 World Cup.
Senators Robert Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey) and Ron Johnson (Republican-Wisconsin) organized the letter, released on April 1, calling on FIFA to move the soccer championship because of Russia's "ongoing violations of the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
Nine Republicans -- including former presidential candidate John McCain -- and four Democrats signed the letter.
The senators said, "Allowing Russia to host the FIFA World Cup inappropriately bolsters the prestige of...[Russian President Vladimir Putin's]...regime at a time when it should be condemned."
FIFA has thus far rejected calls for the event -- one of the world's top sporting events -- to be moved away from Russia.
Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and is accused by Ukraine, Western countries, and NATO of backing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, a charge Moscow denies.
Ukraine's top communist called in for questioning:
Ukrainian Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko has been summoned by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) for questioning over a recent trip to Russia.
SBU spokeswoman Olena Hitlyanska said on April 1 that Symonenko will be questioned about the visit in which he reportedly took part in a Russian Communist Party meeting.
She said the SBU was also investigating comments Symonenko made on Russian television that could be seen as calling for crimes to be commited "against the foundations of Ukraine's national security."
Hitlyanska added: "There is every reason to open a criminal case and to investigate facts that may provide evidence of complicity of the [Communist Party's] top leadership in illegal activities."
The SBU expects Symonenko to appear for questioning on April 2.
Symonenko appeared on Ukrainian television channel 112 on April 1 and said he was in Ukraine but knew nothing about being summoned by the SBU.
He said he not done anything illegal while in Russia. (UNIAN, Interfax)