Accessibility links

Breaking News
A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.
A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

-- EDITOR'S NOTE: We have started a new Ukraine Live Blog as of September 3, 2018. You can find it here.

-- Tens of thousands of people gathered on September 2 in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to mourn a top rebel leader who was recently killed in a bomb attack.

-- Prominent Ukrainian historian Mykola Shityuk has been found dead in his home city of Mykolaiv, police said on September 2.​

-- Ukraine says it has imprisoned the man it accused of being recruited by Russia’s secret services to organize a murder plot against self-exiled Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.

-- Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for the killing of a top separatist leader in eastern Ukraine.

-- Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the head of the breakaway separatist entity known as the Donetsk People’s Republic, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on August 31.

-- The United States is ready to widen arms supplies to Ukraine to help build up the country's naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told The Guardian.

-- The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church in Istanbul has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow.

*Time stamps on the blog refer to local time in Ukraine

14:52 29.9.2017

13:56 29.9.2017

Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry:

13:49 29.9.2017

Here's more on that Crimean "spy" story from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Russia Detains Two Suspects In Crimea As Spies For Ukraine

FSB officers arrest Russian serviceman Dmitry Dolgopolov (center) on suspicion of spying for Ukraine.
FSB officers arrest Russian serviceman Dmitry Dolgopolov (center) on suspicion of spying for Ukraine.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) says a Russian soldier has been detained, along with a "female acquaintance," on suspicion of spying for Kyiv in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Defense Ministry has confirmed that the soldier, Dmitry Dologpolov, had been a Ukrainian citizen who served in Ukraine’s military in Crimea until Russia seized and illegally annexed of the Ukrainian territory in 2014.

The Ukrainian ministry said Dologpolov took on Russian citizenship after the annexation and joined Russia’s military.

The FSB said on September 29 that Dologpolov and the detained woman, Anna Sukhonosova, are suspected of sending information to Ukraine's main intelligence directorate about Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

The FSB said Dologpolov currently is a member of Russia's military forces in Crimea, adding that he and Sukhonosova were detained together on September 29 at an apartment in the region’s capital, Simferopol.

It said the two are facing charges of high treason against Russia, and could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax
13:33 29.9.2017

13:32 29.9.2017

13:30 29.9.2017

13:27 29.9.2017

12:55 29.9.2017

City councilor shot dead after interview on corruption:

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

CHERKASY, Ukraine -- Officials in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy say a municipal councilor has been shot dead just hours after the broadcast of a television interview he gave about corruption within the city’s utility services.

Local police said Mykhaylo Binusov, head of the Cherkasy branch of the Ukrainian Union of Patriots (UKROP) party, died at the scene of the shooting late on September 28.

The were no immediate arrests in connection with the killing, which police said was carried out by “unknown assailants.”

Police said Binusov’s death was being investigated as a case of “premeditated murder."

Binusov had been appointed on September 22 as the acting director of a city council department that oversees the management and operations of municipal utility services.

Cherkasy Mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko said Binusov's main task at that point was to bring an end to corruption with the utility services.

Bondarenko also said Binusov was expected to be elected as the secretary of the city council within the next few days.

The city council on September 29 was scheduled to conduct an extraordinary session to discuss what local lawmakers described as an "apparent assassination." (w/UNIAN)

12:06 29.9.2017

12:04 29.9.2017

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG