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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

10:18 30.10.2017

10:17 30.10.2017

08:44 30.10.2017

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

You can read more about the Manafort case here.

22:17 29.10.2017

This ends our live blogging for October 29. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.

22:12 29.10.2017

21:55 29.10.2017

Saakashvili: Government must meet protesters' demands by November 7:

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

Hundreds of protesters have joined a rally organized outside the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv by the Movement of New Forces, the political party led by Mikheil Saakashvili.

Addressing the October 29 demonstration, the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region called on the Ukrainian government to meet the protesters' demands by November 7.

"[November] 7 will honestly be the last chance that we give [to the government] to accept our demands. We suspect that they won't accept them," Saakashvili said.

"We cannot keep standing here forever," he added. "We cannot keep freezing here forever."

Protesters set up tents outside the Verkhovna Rada building on October 17, calling for the cancellation of parliamentarian immunity, the creation of an anticorruption court, amendments to election laws, and legislation on impeachment of the president.

At least 10 people were arrested after police used tear gas against demonstrators on October 18.

On October 19, the protesters notched a small victory as parliament sent a bill on lifting lawmakers' immunity from prosecution to the Constitutional Court for review.

The protests were initially called by Saakashvili, a onetime ally of President Petro Poroshenko, but many of Ukraine's opposition political leaders have also joined the protests.

In 2015, Saakashvili was appointed by Poroshenko to be governor of the Odesa region and surrendered his Georgian citizenship in order to take the post.

However, Saakashvili resigned in November 2016, saying that his reform efforts had been blocked by Poroshenko's allies.

The former Georgian president was then stripped of Ukrainian citizenship by Poroshenko in June 2017 in a move he is currently challenging in court.

20:56 29.10.2017

Hundreds of protesters joined a rally organized outside the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on October 29 by the New Forces Movement, a novice political group led by Mikheil Saakashvili. The former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship in June 2017 in a move he is currently challenging in court. Saakashvili urged demonstrators to put together a list of demands and called on the Ukrainian government to meet them by November 7. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)

Saakashvili: Ukrainian Government Must Heed Our Demands
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