We are now closing our live blog for today, but we'll leave you with this last update from RFE/RL's news desk before we go. Don't forget that you can keep abreast of all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here:
Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has urged the EU to use economic sanctions to target officials involved in the Ukraine crisis and to not push ordinary Russians "away from Europe."
Khodorkovsky, speaking on December 2 at a European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, told lawmakers that Western sanctions are "encouraging the Kremlin to be more aggressive."
Khodorkovsky spent 10 years in prison for tax evasion and embezzlement, charges that he and human rights groups say were politically motivated.
He was released one year ago and has lived in Western Europe since then.
Khodorkovsky said President Vladimir Putin's "regime" is "not eternal" and could stay in power for about one decade or a far shorter time depending on how the West handles Russia.
He added that although Moscow's annexation of Crimea was illegal, Europe must "look for a compromise" in its relations with Russia or face "a total war."
With reporting by AP
This just in from RFE/RL's news desk:
Russian state-run media behemoth Rossia Segodnya's interview with a former Ukrainian separatist leader was edited to remove references to his work in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and chaos among the rebels, his interviewer says.
Igor Girkin, known as "Strelkov," said in the interview that he is an "FSB lieutenant colonel" and that rebel commanders in eastern Ukraine "were fighting with one another," according to a transcript published by interviewer Aleksandr Chalenko.
The redacted version of the interview published yesterday (December 1) by Rossia Segodnya omits both comments.
Chalenko said in a Facebook post that the text was edited by Girkin's press secretary and trimmed by Rossia Segodnya editors in a standard journalistic process.
Strelkov, who held various posts in rebel regions of eastern Ukraine, had said previously that he served in the FSB until March 2013.
Russia denies that it supports separatists in eastern Ukraine.