Ukrainian Protesters Wall Off Russia's Sberbank Headquarters In Kyiv
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
The Kyiv headquarters of Russia's state-owned Sberbank has suspended operations in the midst of protests by anti-Kremlin demonstrators who blocked the entrance and windows of the building with concrete blocks on March 13.
Sberbank said it had officially asked police in Kyiv to protect the building as the protest continued on March 13.
Sberbank's other branches in Kyiv were continuing operations.
Dozens of anti-Kremlin protesters from Ukraine's nationalist Azov activist group who blocked the Sberbank headquarters are demanding a ban on Sberbank's operations in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Azov activists claimed responsibility for using insulation foam on March 13 to damage dozens of ATM machines belonging to Russian banks in cities across Ukraine -- including Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv.
Protests against Sberbank began on March 7 after Sberbank said it would recognize passports issued by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
A February 18 decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin's ordered all Russian authorities to recognize identity documents issued by pro-Russia separatists who hold parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
On March 7, Ukraine's National Bank threatened to impose sanctions on the Ukrainian subsidiary of Sberbank if it recognizes the separatist regions' documents.
Sberbank on March 9 retracted its earlier statement, saying it is not going to recognize separatist-issued documents.
With reporting by UNIAN, TASS, and RIA-Novosti
From RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels:
The European Union has extended sanctions against dozens of individuals and entities over Russia's annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
The EU member states' ambassadors to the bloc agreed on March 13 to prolong the sanctions against 150 individuals and 37 entities that, according to Brussels, are responsible for actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry:
Here's a new item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Kyiv Court Hears Nasirov's Appeal Against Pretrial Detention
KYIV -- A Kyiv court is reviewing an appeal by Roman Nasirov, Ukraine's suspended tax and customs service chief, against a ruling placing him in pretrial detention on embezzlement charges.
In a rare attempt to prosecute a high-level official in Ukraine over allegations of corruption, Nasirov is being investigated on suspicion of defrauding the state of 2 billion hryvnias ($74 million).
He was suspended from his post on March 3, and a district court in the capital on March 7 ordered him placed in pretrial detention for two months.
The court ruled that he could be granted house arrest if he pays $3.7 million bail, a record high for Ukraine.
Dozens of demonstrators who want to ensure Nasirov does not avoid trial rallied outside the appeals court building as the hearing progressed, chanting "Nasirov Belongs Behind Bars!"
The National Anticorruption Bureau says that Nasirov signed off on grace periods for a number of taxpayers, including companies linked to a former lawmaker who fled abroad last year while facing a corruption investigation.
President Petro Poroshenko's government is under pressure from Ukrainians and the West to fight deep-seated corruption, which observers say hurts the country's chances of throwing off influence from Russia, which seized the Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and backs separatists in a deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine.