LGBT activists were attacked in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on May 17 at a rally to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
No video link with Yanukovych as treason trial resumes in Kyiv:
By RFE/RL
KYIV -- A Ukrainian court has resumed hearings in the treason trial of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, but an expected video link with the fugitive former leader failed to materialize.
At the start of the May 18 preliminary hearing in the Obolon ditsrict court in Kyiv, Yanukovych's lawyer Vitaliy Serdyuk asked Judge Vladyslav Devyatko to provide details on how a video link could be established.
After a break, Devyatko said that the court had never intended to set up a video link for the preliminary stage of the trial.
Yanukovych abandoned office in late February 2014 and fled to Russia in the face of protests triggered by his decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and improve trade ties with Moscow instead.
Dozens of people were killed when his government attempted to clamp down on the Euromaidan demonstrations.
Yanukovych is accused of treason, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression, and is being tried in absentia.
After he fled, Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomented separatism in eastern Ukraine, where war between the government and Russia-backed forces has killed more than 9,900 people.
In another development at the May 18 hearing, the judge agreed to register a defense claim that a statement by Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko ahead of the initial May 4 hearing influenced preparations for the trial. (w/RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)