Here's another item from our news desk:
Putin Visits Annexed Crimea Days Before Election
President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea on March 14, four days ahead of Russia's presidential election, and is expected to attend public events to mark the anniversary of the March 16, 2014, referendum in the peninsula used by Moscow to justify the annexation of the region from Ukraine.
Before arriving in Crimea, Putin visited the construction site of a bridge that is expected to link the annexed peninsula with Russian territories across the Kerch Strait. The construction of the bridge started in 2016.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Putin's trip to Crimea would be his last major campaign event before the March 18 vote.
In reaction to Putin's visit, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the move was "an extremely dangerous provocation" and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against "those who organized Russian presidential elections events on a Ukrainian territory."
Putin's government moved swiftly to seize control of Crimea in March 2014 after Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country following months of street demonstrations by pro-Western Ukrainians.
Russia sent troops without insignia to Crimea and orchestrated the takeover of government bodies, before holding the referendum on March 16, 2014.
In March last year, Russian lawmakers moved the date of the 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.
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 Interfax, TASS, and UNIAN
From the Lithuanian foreign minister: