Fighting was reported on April 11 around the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiyivka. Russia-backed separatists pounded Ukrainian government positions with artillery and mortar shells. Cease-fire violations have been on the rise. A week earlier, RFE/RL correspondent Levko Stek spent a tense night in the trenches with Ukrainian troops.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to expand):
In what has been aptly described as “the latest disgrace from the Prosecutor General’s leadership”, an attempt was made late on Sunday evening to read out criminal charges against Vitaly Kasko, a prominent critic of corruption and sabotage of reform within the prosecutor service.
Kasko resigned from his post as Deputy Prosecutor General on Feb 15. He stated then that he did not wish to be part of a body where “total lawlessness is tolerated”. He added then that he saw no possibility under the current PGO leadership of creating a prosecutor’s office in line with European standards and willing to investigate corruption. Kasko had long been in conflict with Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, and had publicly criticized the sabotage of a major program for ensuring new blood in the prosecutor’s service.
A criminal investigation had been initiated against Kasko over a flat in Kyiv three days before his resignation. On March 28, the eve of Shokin’s dismissal of the other reform-minded Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze as a parting gesture before Shokin’s own removal, the flat in Kyiv was frozen. Kasko then stated that he had only learned of this from the media and he accused Shokin of carrying out a reprisal attack on him.