This ends our live blogging for April 8. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Russia looking into possible transfer of jailed Sentsov to Ukraine:
By RFE/RL
The Russian Justice Ministry says it is looking into a request from Kyiv to transfer filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and three other Ukrainian convicts to Ukraine.
In a statement on April 8, the Justice Ministry said it had requested the Federal Penitentiary Service to prepare documents for such a prisoner transfer.
However, the ministry cautioned that any decision to hand over Sentsov, Hennadiy Afanasyev, Oleksandr Kolchenko, and Yuriy Soloshenko would be made by Russian courts.
According to the ministry, the process was launched after Russia received a request from Ukraine on March 10.
A Russian court convicted Sentsov and Kolchenko on terrorism charges in August 2015 and sentenced them to 20 and 10 years in prison, respectively.
Afanasyev was sentenced to seven years in jail on the same charges in April 2015.
All strongly denied the charges.
Critics have dismissed such cases as a sham to punish the defendants for their pro-Ukrainian stance. (w/Interfax)
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
