Accessibility links

Subscribe
All RFE/RL sites
All RFE/RL websites Follow RFE/RL on Google
site logo site logo
Previous Next
Breaking News
Aleksandr Malykhin, chairman of Luhansk's separatist election commission, announces results of the referendum in the Luhansk region on May 12.
Aleksandr Malykhin, chairman of Luhansk's separatist election commission, announces results of the referendum in the Luhansk region on May 12.
Blogs

Live Blog: Crisis In Ukraine (Archive)

Latest News

-- 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."

-- Insurgents in eastern Ukraine said nearly 90 percent of voters backed self-rule in the votes.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
22:38 7.5.2014
Breaking from our news desk:
U.S. President Barack Obama plans to halt Russia's eligibility for trade benefits under a program that assists developing countries.

The move comes as Washington seeks to punish Russia over its annexation of Crimea and for its role in destabilizing eastern and southern Ukraine.

Obama notified the U.S. Congress on May 7 that he intends to withdraw Russia's access to the Generalized System of Preferences program, which exempts eligible countries from tariffs on certain goods.

Russia was the program's ninth-largest beneficiary last year, with $296 million in tariff discounts on goods it sends to the United States.

The White House cited Russia's "sufficiently advanced" economy as the basis for the decision.

The announcement did not specifically mention the Ukraine crisis.

But it follows U.S. sanctions against Russian officials and businesses close to Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

10:00 8.5.2014
Good Morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with news of new nationwide surveys by the Pew Research Center which indicate that "a clear majority of Ukrainians agree that their country should remain a single, unified state."
Among Ukrainians, 77% say Ukraine should remain united, compared with 14% who think regions should be permitted to secede if they so desire. In Ukraine’s west, which includes the central region around Kyiv (Kiev), as well as portions of the country that border Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, more than nine-in-ten (93%) think their nation should remain unified. A smaller majority (70%) in the country’s east – which includes areas along the Black Sea and the border with Russia – also prefer unity. Only in the breakaway territory of Crimea do more than half (54%) voice support for the right to secede.
Read more here

10:28 8.5.2014

10:29 8.5.2014

10:46 8.5.2014

10:55 8.5.2014

11:39 8.5.2014
NATO chief Anders-Fogh Rasmussen has been responding to Russian claims that it has pulled back troops from the Ukrainian border:

11:40 8.5.2014

11:41 8.5.2014

11:43 8.5.2014
Here's the latest update on Kyiv's operations against separatists in east Ukraine from RFE/RL's news desk:
Ukraine says the military operation against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine will continue regardless of their decision to hold referendums.

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy said the "antiterrorist operation" will proceed even if the leaders of the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic" decided to postpone plans for a referendum on self-determination due on May 11.

Ukrainian forces have retaken some of the government offices captured by the separatists in about 12 cities in eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Pution called yesterday for separatist leaders in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions to delay the holding of such referendums.

Separatist officials said they will consider Putin's request.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 8 that the Kremlin is awaiting the "results of a people's assembly in Donetsk" that he says will decide on whether to hold the referendum.

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG