Coal-mine collapse in western Ukraine kills at least eight:
By RFE/RL
Authorities say an explosion and collapse at a coal mine in western Ukraine has killed at least eight workers.
The State Emergency Service said that 20 miners were missing after the March 2 accident at the mine in the Lviv region, while six were injured but made it to the surface.
Rescue teams were trying to locate the missing miners about 550 meters underground, it said.
The coal mine operated by a state company, Lvivvuhillya, is situated several kilometers from the Polish border.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman left for Lviv after the blast and planned to go to the mine, his spokesman Dmytro Stolyarchuk said. (w/UNIAN)
Here's another news item, courtesy of RFE/RL's Russian and Ukrainian services:
Crimean Tatar Leader Faces Trial On Russia-Controlled Peninsula
A Crimean Tatar leader who has criticized Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula is expected to go on trial within weeks.
Ilmi Umerov, deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body, the Mejlis, said on Facebook that investigators from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) told his lawyers on March 1 that they had wrapped up their case.
Umerov's lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, said defense attorneys were given a March 7 deadline to read the case materials -- which he said consisted of three 250-page volumes.
Kurbedinov said the trial will start in about a month.
Umerov, 59, was charged with separatism in May 2016, after he made public statements opposing Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014.
He denies the charges, saying he has the right to express his opinions freely.