An interview with Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko:
President Poroshenko says there has been no progress on the release of prisoners in Donbas:
VOA video report: The Invisible Battalion: The Story Of Our Women At War, about the role some Ukrainian women are playing in the conflict:
From RFE/RL's Brussels' correspondent:
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS – The European Union on 12 March officially prolonged its asset freezes and visa bans against 150 Russian officials and Russia-backed Ukrainian separatists.
The six-month extension also continues sanctions against 38 entities.
The sanctions were first imposed by the EU against people involved in the violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity in 2014 when Russia occupied and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea region. The sanctions have been extended every six months since then.
Those on the sanctions list include the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Armed Forces General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov, and state TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov.
The entity list is dominated by Russia-backed battalions operating in eastern Ukraine and Crimea as well as companies from Crimea.
EU economic sanctions against Russia, which mainly apply to the country's energy and banking sector, are up for renewal in July.
But a decision on those sanctions is expected to be reached in late June at a meeting of EU leaders.
The EU also is expected to revisit the bloc's ban against investments in Russia-occupied Crimea.
Another report from RFE/RL's news desk:
Putin To Visit Annexed Crimea On Last Day Of Election Campaign
Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit Crimea on March 14, the last day of his presidential election campaign, in order to attend events linked to the fourth anniversary of the widely rejected referendum Russia staged when it annexed the region from Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's Dozhd TV on March 12 that the gathering which is expected to be attended by thousands of people.
Putin's government moved swiftly to seize control of Crimea in March 2014 after the pro-Russia former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power after months of street demonstrations by pro-western Ukrainians.
Russia sent troops without insignia to the Black Sea peninsula and orchestrated the takeover of government bodies, then staged the annexation referendum on March 16, 2014.
In March 2017, Russian lawmakers moved the date of presidential election from March 11 to March 18 -- the fourth anniversary of what Moscow describes as the formal accession of Crimea into the Russian Federation.
Answering a journalist's question about possible circumstances under which Crimea might be returned to Ukraine in a new film that was shown on social networks on March 11, Putin said returning the region to Ukraine will never be possible.
"You must be going out of your mind," Putin said. "There are no such circumstances and never will be."
Eight candidates are on the ballot in the presidential vote. But Putin - who has been president or prime minister of Russia since 1999 -- appears certain to win another six-year term as president.
Based on reporting by Dozhd TV, AFP, and Interfax