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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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Here's another news item, this time from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Ukraine Passes Long-Delayed Health Reforms Sought By West

The new legislation aims to give patients more choice and to help improve services and end corruption, which is seen as rampant in the country's medical sector. (file photo)
The new legislation aims to give patients more choice and to help improve services and end corruption, which is seen as rampant in the country's medical sector. (file photo)

Lawmakers in Ukraine have approved a long-awaited law reforming the health-care system replacing broken-down Soviet-era arrangements with a Western-style, tax-funded healthcare insurance system.

The changes, adopted on October 19, have been pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union, which have chided the government for failing to move forward with vital economic and social reforms and raise health-care standards.

Patients will have more choice under the new legislation, which will help improve service and end bribery and kickbacks that are seen as rampant in the country's medical sector.

Opponents of the bill have complained that the new system will force patients to pay for medicines and could leave some of the country’s poorest citizens without coverage.

The government's task is to provide a quality medical system for citizens rather than "do nothing and tolerate the misery that we have in Ukrainian hospitals," Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman told parliament after the vote passed.

Kyiv has been seeking closer links with the West since a popular uprising ousted pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Ambassadors from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial powers released a statement saying the legislation was "a sign that Ukraine is ready and committed to moving forward with its vital reforms."

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