-- Self-appointed leaders of the Ukrainian separatist region of Donetsk appealed to Russia to consider absorbing it to "restore historic justice" and to send in troops.
-- Pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk said they would not allow voting for the May 25 presidential election to be conducted.
-- Diplomats say the European Union agreed to impose sanctions against 13 additional individuals and two companies, believed to be the first time the EU has targeted companies over the Ukraine crisis.
-- Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov called the votes a "sham" and the United States said they were illegal and merely "an attempt to create further division and disorder in the country."
-- RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service said one of its affiliate radio stations in Donetsk was taken off the air by gunmen and replaced by a pro-Russian broadcaster.
-- The Kremlin said Ukrainian officials in Kyiv should hold talks with pro-Russian separatists on the results of the self-rule referendums, adding that it respected the "expression of the people's will."
Reuters now reporting that Russia has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation around Slovyansk.
15:562.5.2014
A pro-Kyiv activist in Slovyansk, who asked not to be identified, tells RFE/RL's Ukraine Service:
"If you are in some way connected to Ukraine, people can suffer because of that. If in the past we could go out with an Ukrainian flag and hold a rally, now this is impossible. You can even be shot down for that."
16:202.5.2014
A snippet of Russian state-run news agency ITAR-TASS's reporting on the clashes in Odesa:
About 1,500 young men wearing masks and Right Sector armlets armed
with chains, clubs and shields tried to stage a march along Odessa's
central streets, chanting "Glory to Ukraine," "Death to Foes," "Stab
Moskals" [Moskal is an ethnic slur for Russians used in Ukraine], an
Itar-Tass correspondent reported from the site.
They were met by activists from the Kulikovo Pole (Kulikovo Field)
movement, who spoke against what they call the usurpation of power in
Ukraine, for a referendum on federalization of the country and granting
the Russian language the official state language status. Police failed to
prevent clashes, which have spread to Deribasovskaya Street and
Grecheskaya Square. A number of people have been injured.
16:332.5.2014
RFE/RL's Ukraine Unspun blog takes a look at how Russia's Rossiya-1 television convinced viewers that a construction site in eastern Ukraine is actually a "concentration camp" for those "who speak out against Right Sector."
16:482.5.2014
A tweet from U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt:
provoked this response:
16:502.5.2014
16:552.5.2014
CBS News has posted an interview with CBS correspondent Clarissa Ward, who was detained by pro-Russian militants outside Slovyansk earlier on May 2.
"We were blindfolded with cloth and masking tape really quite tightly around our heads so we couldn't see anything at all," Ward told "CBS This Morning" over the phone not long after they were freed.
16:582.5.2014
Here is a solid analytical piece by Russian military analyst Igor Sutyagin (et al) about why Slovyansk is such an important strategic target.
"Kiev knows that it has a strategic reserve of Kalashnikov assault rifles and other light weapons stored in Ukraine as a mobilisation reserve dating back to Soviet times. It has hinted quietly but strongly in back channels between Ukrainian and Russian military establishments that it might be prepared to open this strategic reserve of weapons to an eastern Ukrainian population prepared to resist any Russian military incursions. Since the stockpile consists of up to five million weapons, the prospect would be a nightmare for Russian military planners if they realistically prepared to move into eastern areas of Ukraine. The prospect of civil war and an anti-Russian insurgency on an unprecedented scale with unpredictable consequences represents a real – if extremely dangerous – bargaining chip for Kiev."
17:032.5.2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order appointing Natalya Poklonskaya as Crimea regional prosecutor.
17:082.5.2014
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic has issued a statement calling on all sides in Ukraine to "show respect for media freedom." She said that journalists in Ukraine are "being subjected to brutal violence, kidnappings, aand intimidation while media outlets are repeatedly seized by armed individuals who switch off Ukrainian broadcasts to replace them with Russian ones."
