Court In Czech Republic Closes Ukrainian Separatist Mission In Ostrava
A court in the Czech city of Ostrava has shut down the representative office of Russia-backed separatists from the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk because it was illegal, Ukraine's Ambassador to the Czech Republic Yevhen Perebyinis said on June 28.
Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek expressed his satisfaction and support for the decision.
"I welcome the ruling by a district court in Ostrava to ban the 'Diplomatic center of the Donetsk people's republic,'" Zaoralek wrote on Twitter.
The head of the separatist office, Nela Liskova, protested the court decision and said the office was set up to help the "victims of war" in eastern Ukraine such as by obtaining permits and work opportunities for refugees.
On September 1, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to the Czech Embassy in Kyiv after reports were confirmed of the registration in Ostrava of the so-called DPR mission.
On the same day, the Czech Foreign Ministry said that it would ask a local court to shut it down.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka later reassured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Hroysman, that separatists in eastern Ukraine will not be allowed to have representative offices in the Czech Republic.
Fighting between government forces and separatists has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.
Based on reporting by Ostrava.idnes.cz and Interfax
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Wednesday, June 28, 2017. Check back here tomorrow morning for more of our continuing coverage.
Ukrainian SBU Colonel Killed By Blast In Donetsk Region
By RFE/RL's Ukraine Service
Ukraine says a security service (SBU) colonel was killed and three others injured when a car exploded in the Donetsk region on June 28.
The SBU said in a statement that Yuriy Vozny was killed when the car he was traveling in with three others exploded in the Kostyantynivka district of a Ukrainian-controlled portion of the Donetsk region.
Vozny's death came a day after Ukrainian Colonel Maksim Shapoval was killed by a car bomb in Kyiv.
The three people injured in the June 28 blast were hospitalized with varying injuries.
The SBU said that Vozny is the 23rd officer in the security service to have been killed since fighting began in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff said on June 28 that its forces had killed two Russia-backed separatists in a clash in eastern Ukraine, including a Russian captain named Aleksandr Shcherbak.
The general staff said it had also captured a Russian citizen in the same incident.
The BBC's Russian Service identified the captive as Viktor Ageyev.
Russia denies it has active soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since early 2014.
With reporting by AFP and Interfax
From Poland's former foreign minister:
From the U.K.'s ambassador in Kyiv:
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
The intelligence officer reportedly killed in a car bomb today has been named as Colonel Yuriy Voznyy: