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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

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14:57 19.10.2017

Not strictly related to the crisis, but here's another Ukraine item from RFE/RL's news desk:

Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Calls For 'Objective' Probe Into Deadly Traffic Accident In Kharkiv

Kharkiv police have launched a criminal case involving driving-safety violations and a 20-year-old female suspect has been arrested.
Kharkiv police have launched a criminal case involving driving-safety violations and a 20-year-old female suspect has been arrested.

Ukrainian parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy has called on law enforcement authorities to "immediately and objectively investigate" a deadly traffic accident in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Parubiy on October 19 urged police to "bring a person responsible for [the accident] to justice," a day after a woman reported to be the stepdaughter of a wealthy businessman plowed the car she was driving into a crowd of pedestrians, killing six of them.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that the suspect was arrested.

Five people, including a pregnant woman, remain in hospital with severe wounds, Avakov wrote on Facebook.

Kharkiv regional police spokeswoman Olena Barannyk identified the suspect as 20-year-old Olena Zaytseva, adding that a criminal case involving driving-safety violations was launched.

According to Barannyk, Zaytseva drove into a crowd after the Lexus SUV car she was driving collided on a high speed with another car, whose driver is being questioned as a witness in the case. The identity of that driver was not disclosed.

Local media reports say Zaytseva is a stepdaughter of a successful Kharkiv businessman, Vasyl Zaytsev, and the Lexus was registered to him.

Relatives of wealthy people and officials in Ukraine very often avoid punishment for misdeeds or crimes partly due to widespread corruption.

With reporting by UNIAN, pravda.ua, and 112 Ukraina TV

14:18 19.10.2017

Top EU court upholds sanctions on Yanukovych:

By RFE/RL

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld sanctions imposed by the European Union on former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr.

The Luxembourg-based court confirmed on October 19 the freezing of their funds for the period from March 2015 until March 2016, upholding a previous ruling by the General Court.

In a statement, the ECJ said that Viktor and Oleksandr Yanukovych had challenged the EU sanctions that were imposed on the grounds that they were the subject of pretrial investigations in Ukraine for offenses linked to the misappropriation of public funds.

But the court said that the Yanukovychs' concerns over the impartiality of the Ukrainian judicial system "are not capable of calling into question the cogency of the charges made against them...or of demonstrating that their particular situation had been affected by the problems in the Ukrainian judicial system."

Moscow-friendly Yanukovych was ousted by mass protests in Kyiv in February 2014 and fled to Russia.

The European Council decided in March 2014 to freeze the funds and economic resources of people who "were responsible for the misappropriation of Ukrainian state funds or for abuse of office causing a loss to Ukrainian public funds." The measure was subsequently extended every year.

The sanctions target 15 people, including former Prime Ministers Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov and the head of Yanukovych's presidential administration, Andriy Klyuyev.

Yanukovych has denied misappropriating Ukraine's public funds.

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