Speaking with Putin at the Kremlin, German President Steinmeier called Ukraine an "open wound" in relations with Russia:
A longer piece from RFE/RL's News Desk on the assassination attempt in Kyiv tonight:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
An explosion in Kyiv late on October 25 killed one man and wounded three others, including Ukrainian lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk of the opposition nationalist Radical Party, an Interior Ministry official said in a post on Facebook.
The explosion occurred as Mosiychuk and several other people were leaving the building of a local television station in Kyiv's Solomyanskiy district.
"A total of four people were wounded in the explosion," ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said on Facebook.
"Unfortunately, one could not be saved. He died from the wounds he received on the way to the hospital. This man is around 30 years old and his identity is being checked," Shkiryak said, adding that both Mosiychuk and Ukrainian political analyst Vitaliy Bala, who was with him at the time of the blast, are in the hospital.
Shkiryak said the explosion appears to have been caused by a motorcycle parked near the exit of the TV station, and looked like "an attempt on somebody's life.”
Mosiychuk's press service said on Facebook: “There was an attempt on the life of Ihor Mosiychuk, a direct explosion when he was coming out of the building of Expreso TV6."
Mosiychuk did not suffer life-threatening injuries, his press service said.
Mosiychuck's fellow Radical Party lawmaker Dmytro Linko said on Facebook: “Ihor has many fragmentation wounds and is being operated on, an aide is also seriously wounded.”
Kyiv police spokeswoman Oksana Blyshchyk said at 9:05 p.m. that authorities had received information about a car explosion in the Solomyanskiy district of Kyiv. There was no immediate word from police on possible suspects or a motive for the attack.
Radical party lawmaker Evhen Deidei posted photos on his Facebook page that showed the burnt-out shell of a motorcycle in front of a blast-hit vehicle.
"Judging by the damage to the car and the shrapnel holes in the doors, the power of the explosion was pretty strong," he said.
Mosiychuck's fellow Radical Party lawmaker Dmytro Linko said on Facebook: “Ihor has many fragmentation wounds and is being operated on, an aide is also seriously wounded.”
With reporting by Serhiy Drachuk and Reuters
That concludes our coverage for tonight. Please join us again tomorrow for more on the crisis in Ukraine.
Russia-NATO Council to discuss Ukraine, Afghanistan:
By RFE/RL
The joint NATO-Russia Council is set to meet for a third time this year on October 26, with Ukraine and Afghanistan on the agenda.
NATO ambassadors and Russian envoy Aleksandr Grushko will gather at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, as relations between the West and Moscow have been seriously strained over Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 and because of Moscow's backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Fighting between Kyiv's forces and the separatists who hold parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014. Several cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- signed in September 2014 and February 2015 pacts to put an end to the conflict -- have failed to hold.
Amid strained ties, there has been a series of potentially dangerous close encounters between Russian and NATO warplanes and naval vessels in recent months.
The Russia-NATO Council -- a forum intended to prevent tensions from escalating -- last met in July.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg's office said last week that the October 26 meeting will focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as on ways of reducing the risk of clashes and accidents during military exercises and border surveillance.
Petr Pavel, who is chief of NATO's Military Committee, said on October 25 that Afghanistan will be on the order of business because it is in the interest of both NATO and Russia to fight terrorism.
Russia's special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said last week he would address the NATO-Russia Council to explain Russia's assessment of the current situation in Afghanistan and its future potential, according to comments carried by the Interfax news agency.
The Western-backed government in Kabul is struggling to beat back insurgents in the wake of the exit of most NATO forces in 2014.
Asked about reports that Moscow is supplying arms to the Afghan Taliban, which U.S.-led coalition forces are fighting, Pavel said he had not seen any hard evidence of this.
However, he said he has seen reports that Russia is providing fuel to companies that in turn sell such fuel to the militants.
The commander of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, told a U.S. Senate committee in February that Russia had significantly increased its covert and overt support for the Taliban, with a goal of "undermining the United States and NATO."
And in March, U.S. General Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, told U.S. lawmakers that he had seen evidence of increasing Russian efforts to influence the Taliban "and perhaps even to supply" the militant group.
He did not say if he meant weapons or other kinds of equipment.
Russia has rejected the allegations.
The NATO and Russian ambassadors are also expected to discuss the Zapad military exercise that Russia held with Belarus in September, which brought thousands of troops close to NATO's eastern members and caused concerns about Moscow's intentions given its military interference in Ukraine. (w/dpa, AFP)
LATEST: Lawmaker injured, two killed in "terrorist" bombing in Kyiv:
By RFE/RL
A "terrorist" bombing in Kyiv has killed two people and injured five others, including lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk of the nationalist opposition Radical Party, Ukraine's main security agency says.
The explosion occurred late on October 25 as Mosiychuk and several other people were leaving the building of a local television station in Kyiv's Solomyanskiy district.
A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Olena Hitlyanska, wrote on Facebook on October 26 that the agency launched criminal proceedings into an act of terrorism conducted by an organized terrorist group.
"Investigators are looking into all possible leads at this point; it has been established that unknown individuals blew up a motorcycle at the site where the lawmaker was passing by," Hitlyanska wrote.
The Interior Ministry said that one of the persons killed in the explosion was a 30-year-old guard and special police officer.
The SBU's Hitlyanska was quoted as saying that the second person killed was a passerby she described as a local resident born in 1981.
Ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said earlier on Facebook that the explosion appeared to have been caused by a motorcycle parked near the exit of the TV station, and looked like "an attempt on somebody's life.”
Mosiychuk's press service said on Facebook, "There was an attempt on the life of Ihor Mosiychuk, a direct explosion when he was coming out of the building of Expreso TV6."
Mosiychuk did not suffer life-threatening injuries, his press service said.
Mosiychuk's Radical Party called the bombing an "assassination attempt."
"The assassination attempt against Mosiychuk is linked to his professional activities and political views," Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko wrote on Facebook.
"Clearly, this is the work of our enemy's secret services," he said in an apparent reference to Russia.
Mosiychuk said on October 26 after surgery that the hospital room he was staying in was cordoned off by guards.
He added that he believes those who ordered the attack on him are most likely in Russia and the attack itself was conducted by Russia's agents in Kyiv.
The blast was the latest of several incidents in the Ukrainian capital targeting politicians and a journalist.
Former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov -- a Kremlin critic who had moved to Kyiv -- was gunned down in broad daylight in the Ukrainian capital in March.
A car bomb in July 2016 killed journalist Pavlo Sheremet, an independent Ukrayinska Pravda reporter whose work had been critical of both Russia and Ukraine.
The two earlier cases remain unsolved.
Mosiychuck's fellow Radical Party lawmaker Dmytro Linko said on Facebook: "Ihor has many fragmentation wounds and is being operated on, an aide is also seriously wounded."
Radical party lawmaker Evhen Deidei posted photos on his Facebook page that showed the burnt-out shell of a motorcycle in front of a blast-hit vehicle.
"Judging by the damage to the car and the shrapnel holes in the doors, the power of the explosion was pretty strong," he said. (w/RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, AFP, Reuters)
Following his release, Crimean Tatar leader Akhtem Chiygoz told RFE/RL on October 26:
"Our release [of fellow Crimean Tatar leader Ilmi Umerov and him] is a serious breakthrough by Ukraine and Turkey. For me it was an unexpected event, because I actually was ready to serve eight years in prison. It was a big surprise for me to learn that we were flying to Turkey. We, of course, are planning to be and we will be in our homeland, in Kyiv, today."
Chiygoz added that from his very first days in custody he was offered the chance to ask for his release and later after he was convicted he was offered the option of asking for clemency, which he refused.
Chiygoz vowed to continue his fight for the release of political prisoners in Russia and Russian-annexed Crimea.
"The conditions for the fight have changed, and I continued my fight while in prison. I am confident that now I will have more opportunities for that fight," he said.
Yanukovych treason trial adjourned until December:
By RFE/RL
The treason trial of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in absentia has been adjourned until December 4 after his new lawyer asked for more time to prepare.
In an October 26 ruling, Obolon district court judge Vladyslav Devyatko granted a request by Yanukovych's new state-appointed lawyer, Ihor Lyashenko, for additional time to get acquainted with the case.
It was not immediately clear why Yanukovych's lawyer was changed.
Lyashenko is Yanukovych's third state-appointed lawyer since two lawyers who had represented him withdrew from the case on July 6, saying that Yanukovych had informed them that he did not need their services anymore.
Yanukovych announced that day that he would not participate in the trial, charging that it is politically motivated.
Yanukovych abandoned his office in late February 2014 and fled to Russia in the face of protests triggered by his decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and improve trade ties with Moscow instead.
Dozens of people were killed when his government attempted to clamp down on the pro-European protests known as the Euromaidan.
Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Yanukovych, who is accused of treason, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression.
After he fled, Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomented opposition to the central government in eastern Ukraine, where the ensuing war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people. (w/UNIAN, Ukrayinska Pravda)