That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Saturday, January 23. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.
Ukraine Finance Minister Says Deal With Russia Over $3 Billion Debt Still Possible
Ukraine's finance minister says there is still a chance to avoid a court battle with Russia over $3 billion of debt that Kyiv defaulted on in December.
U.S.-born Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko spoke to Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Jaresko said Ukrainian and Russian Finance Ministry officials may meet "in the near future" to discuss the issue, Bloomberg reported on January 23.
She said she thinks "it’s still very possible to reach a consensual agreement out of court with Russia."
Russia bought a $3 billion Ukrainian bond late in 2013 as part of an aid package widely seen as a reward for then-President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and tighten ties with Russia instead.
But Yanukovych was pushed from power in February 2014 by huge protests over that decision. The debt became a bone of contention after Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s Finance Ministry said on January 1 that it had taken measures to start legal proceedings over the debt.
Based on reporting by Bloomberg and Interfax
Interpol Explains Removal Of Yanukovych Figures From Public Wanted List
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Interpol says it has removed the names of several suspects from the time that former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was in power from its public wanted list in response to a legal complaint Yanukovych has filed.
Vasyl Nevolya, head of Ukraine's Interpol bureau, issued a statement on January 22 saying that information about the Yanukovych-era suspects remains available in Interpol's restricted-access databases.
He said Yanukovych's lawyers had filed a complaint in a French court and with Interpol's control commission asking for the investigation against the suspects to be dropped, leading Interpol to restrict access until the complaint is resolved.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian anticorruption activists noted that Yanukovych, former Prime Minister Mikolay Azarov, former Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov, and others seemed to have been removed from Interpol's wanted list.
Most are wanted on a variety of corruption and abuse-of-office charges.
Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anticorruption Action Center, wrote on Facebook: "Now these monsters can easily enjoy life, for example, on the Cote d'Azur in France."
Interpol placed 12 Yanukovych-era figures on its wanted list in January 2015, most of them with a "red notice," indicating an extradition request. The listing came almost one year after the suspects fled Ukraine under pressure from the Euromaidan mass protests.
In July 2015, Yanukovych himself was removed from the wanted list after he argued before Interpol that the case against him was politically motivated.
Yanukovych and most of the other suspects are currently believed to be in Russia.
With reporting by The Kyiv Post and the International Business Times
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
