Good morning. As you probably know, Ukraine marked the sixth anniversary of the start of the Maidan protests yesterday. Here's a report on the commemorations from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Ukrainians Mark Anniversary Of Movement That Drove Out Pro-Moscow President
KYIV -- Several thousand Ukrainians rallied in Kyiv and other cities to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the beginning of the pro-democracy protests that eventually led the Moscow-backed president to flee the country.
Some 5,000 people gathered on November 21 at the central square in the capital to mark the success of the so-called Maidan movement but also to mourn the lives lost and to express disappointment the protests did not end the endemic corruption that played a role in sparking the demonstrations late in 2013.
Gatherings were also reported in the cities of Odesa, Lviv, Dnipro, and Kharkiv.
The Maidan protest in Kyiv started on November 21, 2013, after then-President Viktor Yanukovych announced he was rejecting a far-ranging political and economic pact with the European Union called an Association Agreement. The same day, then-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s cabinet shelved the agreement.
According to the United Nations, 98 people were killed -- including 84 protesters and 13 law-enforcement officers -- during nearly three months of protests in central Kyiv’s Independence (Maidan) Square.
Ukraine's Prosecutor-General’s Office put the death toll at 104 people.
The majority of the killings took place at the height of the protests on February 20, 2014.
In the commemorations, several hundred people assembled in Kyiv on the street where most of the protesters were shot, known as the Alleyway of the Heavenly Hundred. They brought flowers and icon lamps, and a prayer service for the dead was held in the evening.
In Lviv, residents brought icon lamps to the memorial for the fallen.
About 100 people assembled at Odesa’s regional administration building. Local Maidan activists and journalists were severely beaten at the spot on February 19, 2014, by people the protesters described as hired thugs.
Several hundred assembled at Dnipro’s regional government building holding lighted torches, carrying blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags and chanting the slogan, "No Capitulation!"
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 Ukrainian coverage here.
A video report by By Current Time, the Crimea Desk if RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, and Stuart Greer:
Ukraine's Mariupol Port Struggles To Stay Afloat Amid Russian 'Hybrid War'
After five years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, the port of Mariupol is struggling to survive. With the loss of coal exports and Russia choking access to the Sea of Azov, the port's maritime traffic has been cut in half. But Mariupol hopes Chinese investment can revive its sinking fortunes.
Another news item, this time from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Ukraine Detains Suspected Islamic State Group Leader
An elite Ukrainian police unit has apprehended a suspected 30-year-old member of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv.
The Russian citizen was detained based on an Interpol notice related to murder and was hiding in Ukraine to evade arrest, the National Police said in a statement on November 21.
The unnamed suspect was born in the easternmost Ukrainian region of Luhansk but had lived in Russia for an extended period.
"According to reports, the detainee is a member of the terrorist radical organization Islamic State and even the leader of one of its groups," the police said.
"By ethnicity, he is Daghestani, but was born in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. He lived in Russia for a long time. He was hiding in the territory of our country in order to avoid responsibility for murder."
Last week, Ukrainian authorities, in coordination with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Georgia’s Interior Ministry, detained Al-Bara Shishani, a top IS commander.
The Georgian national had served as a deputy to Abu Omar al-Shishani, the man the Pentagon has described as the militant group's "minister of war."
After the latter was killed in 2016, Al-Bara Shishani fled to Turkey and in 2018 used a fake passport to enter Ukraine, where he continued to coordinate IS activities, Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) said.
He was detained in the Kyiv region near a private home where he resided, the SBU said.