Has War In Ukraine Moved To A Second Front?
The violent weekend clashes between Ukrainian police and armed fighters from the Right Sector nationalist group have the potential to move the Ukrainian conflict to a new front on its westernmost border.
RFE/RL looks at the multiethnic, independent-minded region of Transcarpathia, where some residents' roots lie closer to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania -- and even Russia -- than they do to Ukraine.
Savchenko Indictment Sent To Rostov Court
An indictment against jailed Ukrainian pilot and parliament member Nadia Savchenko has been sent to the Donetsk Town Court in Russia's Rostov region, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office reported on July 13.
The indictment is due to pave the way for a trial.
Savchenko is accused of direct participation in the killing of two Russian reporters who died last year while covering the conflict in Ukraine. She is also charged with attempted murder and illegally entering Russian territory.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, said that Savchenko is facing 25 years in prison.
Markin said the crime carries a punishment as long as life in prison but that women are not given life sentences according to the Russian Criminal Code.
Savchenko says she was illegally brought into Russia after being abducted by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS
Right Sector gunmen take boy hostage in western Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Two gunmen from Ukraine's notorious nationalist militia Right Sector have briefly taken a six-year-old boy hostage in western Ukraine as a standoff between the gunmen and police entered its third day.
Two people were killed Saturday in a Right Sector gun-and-grenade attack on police in a western Ukrainian city. Police had surrounded some gunmen in a wooded area of the city of Mukacheve and have been trying to negotiate their surrender since then.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said in a statement Monday that police and security services had tracked two Right Sector gunmen outside Mukacheve but they took a six-year-old boy hostage and managed to escape.
Right Sector said its members were trying to confront policemen who they said were involved in contraband in the region.