Crimea's prosecutor seeks closure of Tatars' Mejlis:
The Kremlin-backed prosecutor of Crimea, Natalya Poklonskaya, has filed a request with the territory's Supreme Court to ban the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body, the Mejlis.
Poklonskaya signed the request to brand the Mejlis "an extremist organization" on February 15, Russian news agencies reported.
Established in 1991 and legalized by the Ukrainian government in 1999, the Mejlis has been known as an organ that addressed issues related to Crimean Tatars to Kyiv and international bodies.
The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
On February 11, Russian authorities that control Crimea arrested several Crimean Tatars on suspicion of belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Sunni political organization that is banned across Central Asia and Russia.
Crimean Tatar activists rejected the charges, saying that they were politically motivated. (TASS, Interfax)
In the latest uptick in violence in eastern Ukraine, heavy weapons fire was heard early on February 13 near the Maryinka checkpoint, west of the city of Donetsk. Amid the rising tensions, Ukrainian government troops near the Black Sea coast conducted heavy military drills. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Here's another news item, this time from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Reformist Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor-General Resigns
KYIV -- Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor-General Vitaliy Kasko, known for his pro-reform stance, has resigned.
Kasko told journalists in Kyiv on February 15 that "the straw that broke the camel's back" was a move by Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin to take all of Kasko's activities under his control.
"The Prosecutor-General's Office today is a dead institution, in independence and efficiency, that nobody believes in anymore," Kasko said.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter after Kasko's announcement that "Kasko was a champion of reforms in the prosecutor-general's office in Ukraine. His resignation will interrupt the progress of reforms in Ukraine."
Earlier in February, another reformist member of the government, Aivaras Abromavicius, resigned from the post of economy minister.
Abromavicius said his resignation was borne out of frustration over the "sharp escalation in efforts to block systemic and important reforms."
Our news desk has just issued this item:
Ukraine Bans Russian Freight Transit In Tit-For-Tat Move
Ukraine has banned Russian cargo trucks from entering the country one day after Moscow imposed a similar ban on Ukrainian trucks.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced in Kyiv on February 15 that "Ukraine has temporarily suspended…transit permits for cargo vehicles with Russian registration."
Moscow imposed the ban on February 14 in response to an incident on February 11 when Ukrainian nationalists blocked Russian trucks from entering the country via Belarus.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of Russia's Federation Council, wrote on Facebook that Ukraine was "provoking" Russia in order to "paint Russia's response as aggression and a violation of rights."