We are now closing the live blog for today but, before we go, we'll leave you with one last update from our news desk. (Don't forget that, until we resume again tomorrow, you can catch up with all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here.)
President Petro Poroshenko has signed into law legislation banning Soviet symbols and communist-era propaganda in Ukraine.
Poroshenko's office made the announcement on May 15.
Under the legislation, the communist government that ruled between 1917 and 1991 is condemned as a criminal regime.
Its symbols and propaganda are banned -- a measure that would require the demolition of monuments to Bolshevik Revolution leader Vladimir Lenin and other Soviet-era icons that remain.
The legislation applies the same treatment to the Nazi regime, which occupied and controlled much of Ukraine during World War II.
The measures drew strong Russian criticism when they were approved by parliament in April.
They are part of a shift away Soviet imagery, which Kyiv says the Kremlin is using to influence neighbors and promote self-serving myths about World War II amid the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine is deeply at odds with Russia over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people.
(TASS, Interfax, and AFP)
Some economic developments now, from our news desk:
Russia's economy has had its first contraction in nearly six years following a sharp slide in energy prices and the ruble's worst crisis since 1998.
Citing preliminary data, the Federal Statistics Service said on May 15 that gross domestic product declined 1.9 percent in the first quarter year-on-year, following a 0.4 percent gain in the previous three months.
Growth stalled in 2014 because of Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and a plunge in oil prices.
The government officially forecasts a 3 percent contraction of the economy this year, but officials have said that this now looks over-pessimistic.
In a sign of growing confidence about Russia's economic outlook, the central bank sold rubles this week for the first time since June 2014 in an effort to rebuild its foreign currency reserves.
The move comes as the national currency rebounded more than 20 percent this year amid a jump in oil prices and as a cease-fire agreement in eastern Ukraine reduced the likelihood that sanctions against Russia will be deepened.
(Reuters, Bloomberg.com)