It's safe say that the situation in Donbas may have had something to do with Dynamo Kyiv ending Shaktar Donetsk's dominance in the Ukrainian soccer league.
Our news desk has updated its story on the two Russian soldiers captured in east Ukraine yesterday:
The Ukrainian military claims to have captured two Russian soldiers fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Vladislav Seleznev, spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, said on May 18 that the two men are being questioned by the Ukrainian Security Service and are on their way to Kyiv where they will face the media.
The military says the two Russian soldiers had been taken prisoner in the town of Shchastya, near the front line.
A video has emerged apparently showing one of the soldiers, said to be members of Russia's elite special forces, saying during questioning that he was a sergeant from the central Russian city of Togliatti.
Moscow on May 18 reiterated its position that there were no Russian troops in Ukraine.
Russia has admited, however, that a number of its nationals are fighting with the separatists in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
(AP, BBC)
As today marks the anniversary of the deportation of Tatars from Crimea, now is perhaps a good time to re-up these videos that RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service provided last year to mark the 70th anniversary of those turbulent times:
WATCH: 1944 Deportation Victim: ‘I Will Never Forgive Russia’
WATCH: 1944 Deportation Victim: 'We Said Goodbye To Our Home'
Good morning. Today is the anniversary of the mass deportation of the native Tatar population from Crimea in 1944. Here are a few tweets on the subject:
We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll leave you with a brief wrap-up from our news desk on the capture of two Russian servicemen in eastern Ukraine today. Don't forget that until we resume blogging tomorrow morning, you can keep up with our ongoing Ukrainian news coverage here.
A military spokesman says Ukrainian troops have arrested two Russian servicemen in Ukraine's separatist eastern territories.
Ukraine and NATO accuse Moscow of supporting pro-Russian separatists with troops and military supplies, a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
Spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a news briefing on May 17, that "two Russian servicemen are under arrest -- our investigators are working with them," without elaborating.
The Ukrainian Aidar volunteer battalion has claimed it captured the two Russian troops close to the town of Shchastya, which is controlled by government forces around 15 kilometers away from the rebel stronghold of Luhansk.
The battalion said on Facebook that the men captured were from Russian military intelligence, or GRU.
Lysenko said three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 17 wounded in the past 24 hours.
Two of the soldiers died in a mortar attack near the town of Svitlodarsk, northeast of separatist-controlled Donetsk.
While violence has lessened significantly since a shaky cease-fire came into force in February, both sides accuse the other of violations and casualties are reported almost daily.
(Reuters, AFP)