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

18:01 30.4.2018

17:57 30.4.2018

17:53 30.4.2018

17:51 30.4.2018

16:41 30.4.2018

Here's an item from RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak:

EU Expected To Expand Russia Sanctions Over Presidential Poll In Crimea

A campaign billboard for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea earlier this year.
A campaign billboard for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea earlier this year.

BRUSSELS -- The European Union is set to sanction five people who, according to the bloc, helped organize the Russian presidential election in the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea in March.

Sources familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL on April 30 that EU diplomats have been working on updating the bloc's sanctions list for the last several weeks, and EU ambassadors are set to confirm the move when they meet on May 8.

EU ministers would then rubber-stamp the decision one week later.

The names of the individuals to be added to the sanctions list were not provided.

The EU has already frozen the assets of and slapped visa bans on 150 Russian officials and Moscow-backed separatists, as well as 38 entities, that according to Brussels are responsible for actions violating Ukraine's territorial integrity.

The sanctions were first imposed in March 2014 after Russia occupied and annexed Crimea and have been prolonged every six months since, most recently in March.

16:21 30.4.2018

16:19 30.4.2018

16:13 30.4.2018

You can read more on the controversial Khan's Palace restoration here.

15:39 30.4.2018

15:38 30.4.2018

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG