Kyiv frees Georgian wanted in Russia for murder:
By RFE/RL's Georgian Service
Ukraine has released a Georgian man who is wanted in Russia on suspicion of murder and fought against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office issued an announcement about Gia Tsertsvadze's release on January 26.
Tsertsvadze, who had been placed on an international wanted list at Russia's request, was detained on January 15 at Zhulyany airport in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Russian authorities accuse Tsertsvadze of committing murder and attempted murder in Russia in 2003.
Tsertsvadze's lawyer, Ksenia Prokonova, argued that Russian calls for Tsertsvadze's extradition were politically motivated, as he fought alongside Kyiv's forces in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Mamuka Mamulashvili, the leader of the so-called Georgian Legion -- a unit of fighters from Georgia that has been incorporated into Ukraine's armed forces -- had warned Kyiv that his fighters would leave Ukraine if Tsertsvadze was extradited to Russia.
Kyiv condemns Nazi graffiti on gravestones:
Unidentified vandals have spray-painted Nazi graffiti at a memorial cemetery in Ukraine where some Poles are buried.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin denounced the vandals' action at the Bykivnia memorial on the outskirts of Kyiv.
"I resolutely condemn the vandalizing of the Ukrainian and Polish memorials in Bykivnia. Nothing is sacred for the provocateurs, and they will bear responsibility," Klimkin said on Twitter late on January 25.
Bykivnia is a burial place for victims of the Soviet secret police, including some Poles, who were executed from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Vandals spray-painted the name of the SS division Galicia, a Nazi unit consisting of Ukrainian volunteers, on one tombstone at Bykivnia. They also put the name of UNA-UNSO, a Ukrainian far-right nationalist organization.
Poland and Ukraine have friendly ties, but some in Poland harbor bitter memories about the killings of up to 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists between 1943 and 1944 in Volyn and the eastern Galicia regions, which are now part of Ukraine. (AP, TASS)