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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

10:21 25.10.2017

10:16 25.10.2017

08:40 25.10.2017

Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with a few of the things that caught our eye overnight:

21:58 24.10.2017

We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.

21:57 24.10.2017

Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

21:55 24.10.2017

21:54 24.10.2017

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21:27 24.10.2017

21:25 24.10.2017

Another item from our news desk:

Russia's Pussy Riot Protests For Imprisoned Ukrainian Filmmaker Inside Trump Tower

A screen grab from a video of three masked women wearing "Pussy Riot" balaclavas and unfurling a large banner with the slogan "Free Sentsov" inside Trump Tower in New York on October 24.
A screen grab from a video of three masked women wearing "Pussy Riot" balaclavas and unfurling a large banner with the slogan "Free Sentsov" inside Trump Tower in New York on October 24.

Members of the Russian performance-art collective Pussy Riot have carried out a protest in support of jailed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov at Trump Tower in New York City.

Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina posted on social media on October 24 photographs and video of three masked women unfurling a large banner with the slogan "Free Sentsov" inside the skyscraper that is owned by U.S. President Donald Trump and is where he lived before moving to the White House in January.

Sentsov was arrested in the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 following its illegal annexation by Russia. A Russian court in 2015 convicted him and co-defendant Oleksandr Kolchenko of planning to commit terrorist acts. Both men deny the accusations. Sentsov is currently serving a 20-year term in a Russian prison, while Kolchenko is serving a 10-year term.

Western governments and rights organizations have called for Sentsov and Kolchenko to be released, and the Russian Memorial human rights center considers both men political prisoners.

Alyokhina is currently touring with a play about three artists in prison, one of whom is Sentsov.

Pussy Riot gained global notoriety in 2012 when three members of the collective, including Alyokhina, performed a punk song inside Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

The three defendants -- Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich -- were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and sentenced to two years in prison.

Samutsevich's sentence was suspended on appeal. Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were released in December 2013 as part of an amnesty for nonviolent offenders.

With reporting by AP

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