Here's an item from RFE/RL's news desk on events in Odesa, where things are expected to get pretty tense in the coming weeks in the run-up to the first anniversary of May 2 clashes in the city between pro-Moscow and pro-Kyiv groups that culminated in the deaths of dozens of separatists in the local trade union building:
Ukrainian authorities say they have detained 27 alleged members of a "saboteur" group in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.
President Petro Poroshenko's press secretary, Svyatoslav Tseholko, said on Facebook on April 9 that Security Service (SBU) chief Valentyn Nalyvaychenko reported the suspects' detention to Poroshenko.
According to Tseholko, investigators found grenade launchers and maps of Odesa's ports in the suspects' possession. He said two of those detained are also suspected of plotting to kill a lawmaker.
Last week, the SBU said it had detained three people suspected of involvement in a series of bombings in Odesa, some of them targeting organizations with ties to soldiers fighting against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities blamed those blasts on Russia and the rebels who hold parts of the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Odesa lies on territory coveted by the separatists.
Meanwhile, our resident Kremlin-watcher, Brian Whitmore, also looks at Odesa in the latest Daily Vertical video blog. In today's edition, he looks at efforts in the city to revive the old Russian imperial territory of Bessarabia, which straddles what is now Moldova and part of the Odesa region:
Here is a map of today's military situation in the Donbas region, issued by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense (click image to enlarge):
