The Polish president is in Kyiv at the moment. Our news desk has issued this brief report of his visit:
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has voiced strong support for Ukraine during a speech in the parliament in Kyiv, and urged other nations to back the country as its struggles against Russian interference.
Addressing the Verkhovna Rada on April 9, Komorowski said that Poland has "stretched out its hand to Ukraine and is doing everything -- and will do everything -- so that other states and peoples of the free Western world stretch their hands out to Ukraine as well."
"Poland's stretched hand is not just an indication of the current political trend but our understanding of the historic processes turning Ukraine to an equal and extremely important partner and neighbor," he said.
Komorowski added that "it is not about the past, it is about the future of the Ukrainian-Polish ties."
Komorowski was on a two-day visit and met with President Petro Poroshenko on April 8.
(UNIAN and pravda.com.ua)
Good morning. We'll start the live blog this morning with this update from RFE/RL's news desk:
Amnesty International says it has new evidence of "execution-style killings" by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The London-based human rights organization said on April 9 that it had videos of three government soldiers shown alive in captivity, then dead in a morgue with bullet wounds to their heads and upper bodies.
It also quoted witnesses as saying that another soldier was shot at point-blank range by a separatist commander.
Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia Deputy Director Denis Krivosheev said the torture, ill-treatment, and killing of captured, surrendered, or wounded soldiers are war crimes.
He said such claims "must be promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated, and the perpetrators prosecuted in fair trials by recognized authorities."
The allegations come after a rebel commander told the Kyiv Post newspaper that he had killed 15 captured Ukrainian soldiers.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine over the past year.
Rights groups have accused both sides of abuses.