Here is another item from our news desk:
The Russian-appointed human rights commissioner in Crimea says the situation with rights there is worse than in Russian regions.
Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 after the pro-Moscow president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was chased from office by protests in February 2014.
The Kremlin created the office of the human rights commissioner in October 2014 and appointed Lyudmilla Lubina to the position.
In an April 5 report from Russian news agency Interfax, Lubina said, "Crimea has not risen to Russia's average level so far."
She said "about a hundred people visit our office daily" and that "more than 1,000 people have filed complaints about human rights abuses" since she took up the post last year.
She added, "The flow of people in need of protection and aid is not decreasing."
Lubina did not specify what sort of complaints her office has been receiving.
She went on to say the rights situation in Crimea has improved, but gave only one example of how the observance of Crimeans' linguistic rights had improved markedly.
(Interfax)
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this report from our news desk on some fatalities in eastern Ukraine yesterday:
Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed on April 5 in the east of the country in two separate incidents as the conflict in eastern Ukraine entered its second year.
The Interior Ministry said a military vehicle was hit as it drove across a bridge in Schastye, a government-held town about 170 kilometers northeast of the separatist-held city of Donetsk.
The ministry accused Russian-backed separatists of firing the shell, but that report could not be independently confirmed.
It said Initial reports showed "militants had fired a laser-guided antitank missile."
Ukraine's antiterrorism center has identified all four of the servicemen, adding that they came from the Kharkiv region.
The information center for the so-called Luhansk People's Republic denied reports its forces were involved.
The pro-Russian separatists claimed the Ukrainian military vehicle hit a landmine placed on the bridge by Ukrainian forces.
In a separate incident less than an hour later, a Ukrainian military vehicle hit a landmine near the town of Shyrokyne, east of the city of Mariupol, killing two servicemen and wounding one other.
The previous day, the government reported the deaths of another three soldiers when a mine exploded near Avdiyivka, a government-held town north of Donetsk.
The fatalities were the first announced by the authorities in almost a week after the death of a Ukrainian army soldier reported on March 30.
The deaths have underscored the fragility of a cease-fire in force since February, when it was brokered by leaders from Germany and France with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders in attendance.
Both sides in the conflict have accused the other of violations since the cease-fire went into effect.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since fighting broke out between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government a year ago, according to the UN.
(Reuters, AFP, UNIAN, Interfax)
Barring any major developments, we won't be live blogging today. Normal service will resume on Monday.