Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

Here's another news item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Russia Releases Son Of Crimean Tatar Leader Dzhemilev

Khaiser Dzhemilev, the son of Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, was released from a penal colony in Astrakhan in southern Russia on November 25.

Dzhemilev's lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, said in a Facebook post on November 26 that Dzhemilev has arrived in Ukraine.

Dzhemilev was granted early release from a three-and-a-half year sentence on manslaughter and weapons possession charges.

Dzhemilev was initially convicted by a Ukrainian court in 2013 of accidentally shooting one of the family's bodyguards, Fevzi Edimov.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, the Moscow-backed authorities took over the case, moved him to mainland Russia and tried him again on the same charges.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, who strongly protested the annexation of Crimea and is currently living in Kyiv, said that Russia was using his son to blackmail him into stopping his campaign against the annexation.

Dzhemilev, 72, has been banned from Crimea since Russia invaded and annexed the peninsula in early 2014.

He had been the chairman of the Crimean Tatars' Mejlis, or council, until it was banned by pro-Moscow representatives in Crimea.

He is a member of the Ukrainian parliament and a well-known Soviet-era human rights activist.

With reporting by the Financial Times and TASS

A tweet from Ukraine's foreign minister:​

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his wife, Maryna, pay their respects to the victims of the Holodomor:

Here's a news item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on Holodomor events today:

Ukraine Commemorates Victims Of Holodomor Famine

Ukraine is marking an official Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Holodomor on November 26, commemorating the millions who died of famine under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Flags are flying at half-mast and entertainment events have been canceled.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, representatives from Ukraine's churches, and envoys from various countries will attend a ceremony to honor the victims.

There will also be a nationwide minute of silence observed at 4 pm local time.

Alexander Wienerberger was recruited into the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I. In 1915, he was taken prisoner in Russia and ended up staying in the U.S.S.R. until 1934. Later, he worked as a chemical engineer specializing in explosives, and he established chemical factories in the Soviet Union. In 1933, he was assigned as technical director of a synthetic factory in Kharkiv and became witness to the man-made famine orchestrated by the Soviet government, the Holodomor. His photographs -- made with a Leica camera -- are some of about 100 images verified to be authentic portrayals of those harrowing events. The captions are based on the photographer's own notes.

The official Day of Remembrance for the victims of the famine is marked every year on the fourth Saturday of November.

The Holodomor took place in 1932 and 1933 as Soviet authorities forced peasants in Ukraine to join collective farms by requisitioning their grain and other foodstuffs.

Historians say the failure to properly harvest crops in 1932 under Soviet mismanagement was the main cause of the famine.

It is estimated that as many as 9 million people may have died as a result of executions, deportation, and starvation during the Stalin-era campaign.