-- 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 Muzychkoearlier 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
Russia is accusing Ukrainian authorities of barring crews of Russian commercial airliners from leaving their aircraft when parked at Ukrainian airports.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Ukrainian border guards have been preventing Aeroflot cabin crews from leaving their aircraft.
The ministry said the decision violates international laws and ultimately "poses a threat to the safety of civil aviation" because the crews cannot rest properly.
The ministry said it had sent protest notes to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are high following Moscow's occupation and eventual annexation of Crimea.
09:1726.3.2014
Meanwhile, Russia is continuing to look into its transport options regarding Crimea. As RT reported last week:
The long delayed Kerch Strait Bridge project, which would connect the Crimean peninsula and mainland Russia, has been given a green light, with President Putin saying the bridge would provide both road and rail links.
Vladimir Putin held a meeting with members of the government on Wednesday in order to discuss transport links with the Crimea, a day after the treaty of accession of the republic to the Russian Federation was signed.
The latest initiative is a high-speed catamaran link between the Russian port of Anapa and the Crimean port of Kerch (See map). This from ITAR-TASS:
High-speed direct sea passage is in prospect between the Russian port of Anapa in the southern Krasnodar region and the Crimean port of Kerch.
The first trial voyage on the sea-going 40-meter catamaran Sochi-1 is scheduled for March 26, the region's administration told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Sochi-1 is a double-deck vessel with glassed-in passenger salons opening on a panoramic view and fitted with comfortable seats, bar counters, radio and television. The vessel can embark 300 passengers and reach a flowing speed of 63 kilometers an hour (34 knots).
“Now, citizens and visitors of Anapa, the main location of children’s holiday camps, do not need to go to the district ferryboat port to reach Crimea,” an administration official said.
Crossings between the two central ports will be operational from April 1, making two journeys a day in each direction.
09:3926.3.2014
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk spoke late last night to PBS. Couple of soundbites:
"What we did in Crimea -- we refrained from the use of force in order to prevent bloodshed and in order to show to the entire world that it's the Russian military and the Russian regime who occupied the Ukrainian territory and who has made a real aggression."
"What's going to happen in case Russia[n forces] cross the border of the mainland [Ukraine] -- this is the duty of every Ukrainian citizen to protect our country. We will fight."
09:4526.3.2014
Crimean military dolphins and sea lions "to start new training in the interests of the Russian fleet" (h/t @mashant) http://t.co/DDrmajX8Sh
If you're in doubt that military dolphins are actually a thing, check out this Wikipedia entry.
Due to the secrecy of such practice, rumors of military dolphins include training them to lay underwater mines, to locate enemy combatants, or to seek and destroy submarines using kamikaze methods.[4] There has even been speculation about the potential development of sophisticated equipment, such as poison darts, sonar jamming devices, and so on for dolphins, and about combat between cetaceans of both superpowers.
09:5826.3.2014
EU diplomacy continues:
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele are due in Kyiv on Wednesday for meetings with Ukrainian officials.
Fuele -- who spent several days in Kyiv conducting negotiations during the Euromaidan standoff between antigovernment protesters and President Viktor Yanukovych before his ouster -- is due to meet with acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov, among other officials.
Poland has been a big supporter of the new Ukrainian government and of its aspirations for closer ties with the European Union.
10:5826.3.2014
Russia's military takeover of Crimea is complete:
Russia's armed forces chief, General Valery Gerasimov, says the Russian flag is now flying over all 193 military facilities in Crimea.
His statement came one day after pro-Russian forces seized the last Crimean warship still under Ukrainian control.
According to Crimea's self-proclaimed authorities, more than 15,000 Ukrainian servicemen have applied to switch over to Russian law-enforcement agencies following the peninsula's annexation by Russia.
Another 1,500 Ukrainian servicemen are reportedly preparing to return to mainland Ukraine with their families.
Gerasimov said they would soon be able to leave freely by rail.
11:0626.3.2014
Swedish economist Anders Aslund has not been mincing his words in today's op-ed for "The Moscow Times" on the Crimea situation:
An overlooked fact is that 40 percent of Ukraine's exports to Russia consist of machinery and armaments. Motor Sich in Zaporozhe produces all of Russia's helicopter engines, Yuzhmash in Dnipropetrovsk manufactures carrier rockets and missiles and Antonov makes planes in Kiev. The Russian military-industrial complex will be in great trouble without these imports. Meanwhile, Western countries are quickly cutting arms deliveries to Russia as part of their sanctions.
Meanwhile, back in Kyiv, the Ukrainian government has appointed a new chief of the National Television Company (NTK).
The cabinet's press service said Wednesday that Zurab Alasania is now the NTK's director-general. Alasania, an ethnic Georgian, is a founder of the MediaPort online news portal in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
His appointment comes a week after Ihor Miroshnychenko, a lawmaker from the nationalist Svoboda (Liberty) party, and several other people forced NTK's then-acting chief, Oleksandr Panteleymonov, to write a letter of resignation.
A video posted online showed Miroshnychenko and the others hitting Panteleymonov in the head and face and verbally insulting him. The group accused Panteleymonov of working for Russian authorities.
The incident was condemned by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, the OSCE's representative for freedom of the media, and Amnesty International, who called those who abused Panteleymonov "thugs."
Here's the video of Miroshnychenko (the guy with the long hair) assaulting Panteleymonov (in the final 90 seconds of the video.)
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