Here's another update from our news desk:
Pro-Kremlin lawmakers say the Russian parliament should reinstate President Vladimir Putin's formal authority to send troops into Ukraine if the United States provides Kyiv with lethal weapons.
The lawmakers spoke on March 24, a day after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution urging President Barack Obama to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to defend itself against Russian "aggression."
A Just Russia party lawmaker Mikhail Yemelyanov told the State Duma, the lower parliament house, that if the "the United States actually starts to deliver lethal weapons to Ukraine we should openly back militias...with weapons, and reinstate the president's right to send troops to Ukrainian territory."
He was referring to Russian-backed separatists whose war with government forces has killed more than 6,000 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
Frants Klintsevich, a ruling United Russia party lawmaker, said U.S. supplies of lethal weapons would "in a second" destroy the fragile cease-fire deal now in place.
Parliament gave Putin the formal authority to send troops to Ukraine in March 2014 , a move that sent a warning signal to the West following the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
The authority was later withdrawn, and Russia denies sending troops into eastern Ukraine despite what Kyiv and NATO say is overwhelming evidence.
(Interfax, TASS, AFP)
This just in from our news desk:
Ukraine will mark May 8 as a Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation for those who lost their lives during World War II.
Culture Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko told reporters on March 24 that "like all European nations, we will commemorate those who lost their lives during the war," adding that all Ukrainians who fought for Ukraine's independence "deserve honor and remembrance."
Kyrylenko said that May 9 will be marked as Victory Day as usual.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Ivan Krulko told the Interfax news agency that May 8 would remain a working day and May 9 might be turned into a working day as well.
Ukraine's move is a significant shift from traditional celebrations of Victory Day on May 9.
Russia and many other former Soviet republics commemorate the May 9 anniversary with parades and celebrations and have officially declared it a day off from work.
Many Western European countries celebrate the end of World War II on Victory in Europe Day (VE Day), which falls on May 8.
The Kremlin has portrayed the ouster of Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 as a U.S.-supported coup by fascists, and compares the pro-Western government now in power in Kyiv to Nazis.
(tsn.ua, UNIAN, Interfax)