The Serbs Fighting For Separatists In Ukraine
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says there are some 300 Serbs fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. They appear to motivated by a nationalist agenda stressing traditional links between Russia and Serbia. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service/Reuters)
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with a couple of the tweets that caught our eye while we were away:
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Thursday, November 2, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
Ukraine Wants To Question Manafort, But Says Requests To U.S. Have Gone Unanswered
By Iana Polianska and Christopher Miller
KYIV -- Ukrainian prosecutors intend to ask the U.S. Justice Department for permission to interview President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, following his indictment earlier this week, an official said.
Prosecutors also want U.S. authorities to share any evidence they might have pertaining to an ongoing criminal investigation of a former justice minister, Serhiy Gorbatyuk, prosecutor for special investigations, told RFE/RL.
“Yes, of course, we will do it. We are preparing a request and will ask about [U.S. officials] conducting an interrogation or sharing documents,” Gorbatyuk said by phone on November 2.
Manafort, who has not been charged with a crime in Ukraine, is wanted by prosecutors to testify in a corruption case targeting Oleksandr Lavrynovych, who was justice minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-friendly former president who fled to Russia in 2014.
Prosecutors accuse Lavrynovych of illegally funneling more than $1.1 million in government funds to a powerful U.S. law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Lavrynovych was arrested in September on unrelated charges, accused of having participated in a “coup d’etat.”
Lavrynovych had hired the U.S. law firm in 2011 to review the jailing of then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly brokering an unfavorable gas deal with Russia. Her sentence was viewed by much of the international community -- including Russia -- as political in nature. Tymoshenko was released in February 2014 and later reelected to parliament.