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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.
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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
17:35 8.5.2014

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18:44 8.5.2014
According to RFE/RL's news desk, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin had to take the "scenic route" to the Moldovan capital today:
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has written on his Twitter account that Ukrainian authorities denied Rogozin's plane the right to fly through Ukrainian airspace.

Rogozin was flying to Chisinau, Moldova, to take part in celebrations of Victory Day in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region.

Rogozin said his plane was forced to fly through Romanian and Bulgarian airspace to reach Moldova, a "delay of some 4.5 hours," he tweeted.

Moldova's Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman said on May 5 that she had not received official notice of Rogozin's visit for the May 9 celebrations and had summoned Russia's ambassador for an explanation.

Moscow-backed Transdniester declared independence from Moldova in 1990.

The two sides fought a brief war in 1992 that ended when the Russian military intervened on Transdniester's side.

19:13 8.5.2014
According to "The Moscow Times," pro-Russian separatists are using the Internet's obsession with felines to help promote their views:
From Lolcats and Grumpy Cat to Simon's Cat and the cat that can say "Al Gore" - cats and the web have always been a perfect match.

So it shouldn't be surprising that the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine has sparked its own Internet meme, and it's all about kittens.

Using the #сепаратяка ("little separatist") hashtag, people are taking to social networking sites to post pictures of their, apparently, pro-Russian pets. In many cases, this simply means donning their pet with the ubiquitous black and orange St. George's ribbon.

You can seem some of these pro-Kremlin kitties here.

19:47 8.5.2014

20:02 8.5.2014
RFE/RL's news desk reports that Russia's Foreign Ministry is pretty peeved about an act of seemingly pro-Ukrainian vandalism in Austria:
Russia's Foreign Ministry has protested the vandalizing of a memorial to Soviet soldiers in Vienna.

The Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs demanding that authorities repair the damage to the memorial, find and punish those responsible, and take measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Unknown individuals went to the memorial to "Soviet Soldiers-Liberators" on Schwarzenbergplatz Square in Vienna overnight on May 7 and painted a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag on it.

The protest note from the Russian Foreign Ministry said the "desecration" was the "latest act of vandals…to disrupt the ceremony" marking the end of what Russia calls the "Great Patriotic War" (World War Two) on May 9.

20:03 8.5.2014

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