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Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya speaks to the UN General Assembly on March 27.
Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya speaks to the UN General Assembly on March 27.
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Live Blog: UN Backs Ukraine Integrity

Final Summary For March 27

-- The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that affirms Ukraine's territorial integrity.

-- The IMF has announced "a staff-level agreement" with Kyiv on assistance of $14 billion-$18 billion in conjunction with a reform program that will "unlock" up to $27 billion over the next two years, pending final approval next month. Tthe U.S. Congress has also passed an aid bill for Ukraine.

-- Ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko has announced plans to run for president.

-- Members of the Right Sector have been holding a demonstration outside the Ukrainian parliament building to vent their anger at the killing of prominent member Oleksander Muzychko earlier in the week.

-- Six Ukrainian military officers detained by pro-Russian troops in Crimea have been released, including Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, but five others are still being held captive.

-- Anonymous sources quoted by CNN say U.S. intelligence "concludes it is more likely than previously thought that Russian forces will enter eastern Ukraine."

-- U.S. President Barack Obama, in the keynote speech of his visit to Europe, chided Russia for its use of "brute force" in Ukraine and vowed that a determined alliance of the United States and Europe will prevail over time.


*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
12:54 24.3.2014

Fascinating interview in Telegraf.lv with Oleg Syropyatov, a professor at Ukraine's Military Medical Academy, on the "psychiatric epidemic" starting in Ukraine.

"People got a feeling of enthusiasm and uplift [from coming to Maidan]. But this uplift was an adrenalin rush that went on for a really long time, and so many people are exhausted. The doctors working on Maidan say there are already a lot of psychoses. People with altered states of consciousness. Unfortunately, this traumatic stress disorder is undoubtedly going to spread through the public. It's a deep-seated, very strong trauma. People in this condition can develop a kind of trench disease. If you recall history, the First World War was fought in the trenches. People waited for a very long time, sitting in the trenches, suffering from a lack of action. And then it turned into a bloody revolution."

12:20 24.3.2014

12:11 24.3.2014
Here's another update on U.S. Barack Obama's trip to The Hague:

After meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Amsterdam, U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States and Europe are united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions in Crimea.

Speaking in the Netherlands at the start of a European tour, Obama said Europe and the United States are united in support of the Ukrainian government and its people.

He called Washington's NATO allies its closest partners on the world stage and said Europe is the cornerstone of American engagement with the world.

11:59 24.3.2014
No comment.
No comment.

Last week Russian media was claiming that Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk was offering to parcel off western Ukraine to Poland. Now it turns out it was actually Vladimir Zhirinovsky who made the offer.

The Gazeta.pl news site reports the LDPR leader sent a letter to the Polish Foreign Ministry calling on Warsaw to follow Russia's example and hold a unification referendum in Ukraine's Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Rivne regions.

Zhirinovsky reportedly sent similar proposals to Hungary and Romania, suggesting they use a similar strategy to acquire Transcarpatia and Chernivtsi respectively. The plan -- which presumably envisions a Russian acquisition of eastern Ukraine -- envisions leaving only a small central region of the country intact.

Any takers? Not in Poland, at least. Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Wojciechowski said, "The proposal is so strange, that no one is taking it seriously. It's outrageous to suggest that Poland would participate in dividing up the territory of an ally. Only a sick mind could come up with something like this."

11:32 24.3.2014

11:27 24.3.2014

11:20 24.3.2014
​Aksyonov: Russian (and Ukrainian-born) deputy PM Dmitry Kozak will head the integration and development commission for Crimea. Apparently this is a reward for his successful management of the Sochi Olympics -- including his assertion that he was secretly spying on Western journalists and therefore knew they were exaggerating about decrepit state of their hotels.

11:08 24.3.2014
Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev says Crimea may be granted special economic zone status.

11:08 24.3.2014
Crimean PM Aksyonov announces Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) will set up shop on the peninsula as early as May/June. Says that FMS is trying to catch its breath after receiving more than 20,000 applications for Russian passports. More than 2,500 have already received them, he adds.

10:53 24.3.2014
!!! BREAKING NEWS !!!
Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchnyov has given orders to the Defense Ministry to withdraw all Ukrainian military forces from Crimea.

He said the order was given due to what he called threats by the Russian military to the lives and health of Ukrainian servicemen and their families. (Reuters, AFP)

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