Another item from RFE/RL's news desk:

'Something To Hide?' CPJ Urges Russia To Allow Journalists To Travel Freely To Crimea

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Russia to immediately lift a ban imposed on Ukrainian journalist Taras Ibrahimov and allow him to freely report in Ukraine’s Russia-occupied region of Crimea.

Earlier this month, officers of the Russian Federal Security Service denied Ibrahimov, who works with the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, entry to the Crimean Peninsula and gave him a written notice saying he was barred from entering Russia until 2054.

Authorities in Crimea "seem intent on importing Russia’s harsh attitude toward the press” into the region, said Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the CPJ.

She said Ibrahimov and other journalists "should be free to travel to Crimea to report on the situation there. If they are not, we can only assume Russia has something to hide."

Ibrahimov has said he believed the travel ban was "connected with my journalism and my work for publications that actively cover the cases of Crimean Tatars in Crimea and in Russia."

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities against Crimean Tatars and others who have spoken out against Moscow's military seizure and occupation of Crimea in 2014.

Ibrahimov is not the first Ukrainian journalist to be handed a long-term travel ban by the Russian authorities. Since 2018, Russian authorities have banned a Ukrainian photographer and a Ukrainian journalist who also worked with the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service from entering Crimea and Russia until 2028.

In a statement on January 21, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Russia of trying to “choke the flow of information about their crackdown on Crimean Tatar activists and other abuses” in Crimea by barring independent journalists from traveling there.

Meanwhile, OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir called on "those responsible to respect the role of media actors and to allow journalists to travel without restrictions to carry out their work."

In its annual global report on freedom of religion in 2019, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that "Russian authorities continued to kidnap, torture, and imprison Crimean Tatar Muslims at will" in Russia-occupied Crimea.

Here's an updated story from our news desk on Pompeo's visit to Kyiv:

Pompeo Assures Kyiv Of 'Full Support' Against Russian Aggression

Ukraine says the United States has reiterated its "full support" to restore the country's "territorial integrity" as Kyiv battles Russia-backed forces in a deadly war in its easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

"Michael Pompeo assured that Ukraine has the full support of the United States in stopping Russia's aggression and restoring Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in full," Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on January 31 after the country’s top diplomat, Vadym Prystayko, met U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In Kyiv, Pompeo is also set to have talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials during the trip as Washington looks to show its backing for Ukraine.

Along with aid provided by European countries, Kyiv counts on Washington for diplomatic support and military aid to buy Javelin anti-tank missiles and other hardware in the conflict.

Pompeo is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Ukraine since lawmakers in Washington began the impeachment process of President Donald Trump.

Democrats accuse Trump of abusing his power of office by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival by withholding congressionally approved military aid and a highly desired invitation to the White House for Zelenskiy.

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The visit also comes days after Pompeo reportedly asked an NPR journalist in anger, “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?”

Prior to meeting with Prystayko, Pompeo attended a ceremony honoring those who have died in the nearly six-year war in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014. Russia also seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula on March 2014 in a move not recognized by the international community.

Pompeo also underscored the importance of continued strong bilateral relations between the two countries, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

"At the same time, the U.S. side emphasized the importance of maintaining the high dynamics and effectiveness of reforms in Ukraine," it said.

Two-way trade between the United States and Ukraine reached nearly $4 billion in 2018, with particularly high volumes in mineral fuels, vehicles, iron and steel, and agricultural products.

Pompeo, who began his regional tour in London, will also travel to Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.