Accessibility links

Breaking News
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

13:38 22.3.2018

13:37 22.3.2018

13:34 22.3.2018

13:26 22.3.2018

13:25 22.3.2018

13:24 22.3.2018

13:24 22.3.2018

11:59 22.3.2018

Another news item, this time from the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

FSB Holds Crimean Tatar Activist For Questioning, Wife Fears Terror Charge

Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Memediminov (file photo)
Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Memediminov (file photo)

KHOLMIVKA, Ukraine -- Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Memediminov has been taken in for questioning by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and may face charges of propagating terrorism, his wife says.

Lemara Memediminova told RFE/RL that their house in the village of Kholmivka in the southern Bakhchysaray district was searched on March 22.

"They took him to Simferopol to the Russian FSB headquarters for questioning and it will be known later if they let him go or not. They have launched a probe against him for his video he placed on YouTube as a blogger," Memediminova said.

She expressed concern that Memediminov may be charged with calling for terrorist activities via the Internet.

Memediminova also said that the FSB officers were rude and confiscated a tablet, two mobile phones, and several books from their house.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of oppression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in March 2014.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historical homeland.

In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who it said were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

11:33 22.3.2018

11:29 22.3.2018

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG