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."
Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS
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."
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)
