A great report from Radio Svoboda on the end of classes for the schoolchildren in the front-line town of Avdiyivka, where fighting between separatists and Ukrainian forces has been constant in recent months:
Ukrainian soldiers receive the keys to new housing from Interior Minister Arsen Avakov:
We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
Not surprisingly, Ukraine and sanctions against Russia were discussed at the G7 summit today. You can read our entire report on the meeting here, but here is the bit that pertains to Ukraine:
[European Council President] Tusk also called on G7 leaders to maintain sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.
"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU's 28 leaders, told reporters.
"I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy," he added.
Since 2014, the EU and the United States have maintained sanctions on Russia over its seizure of Crimea and its actions in eastern Ukraine, where a war between Russia-backed separatists and government forces has killed more than 9,900 people.
Tusk spoke a day after a U.S. official, asked whether Trump plans to extend the U.S. sanctions, indicated that the president had not decided.
"I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don’t have a position," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters on Air Force One en route to Sicily for the summit. He added that Trump has "many options."
However, later on May 26 at the G7 summit, Cohn came out strongly in favor of sanctions.
“We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia," he told reporters. "If anything, we would probably look to get tougher on Russia."