We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll leave you with a brief wrap-up from our news desk on the capture of two Russian servicemen in eastern Ukraine today. Don't forget that until we resume blogging tomorrow morning, you can keep up with our ongoing Ukrainian news coverage here.
A military spokesman says Ukrainian troops have arrested two Russian servicemen in Ukraine's separatist eastern territories.
Ukraine and NATO accuse Moscow of supporting pro-Russian separatists with troops and military supplies, a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
Spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a news briefing on May 17, that "two Russian servicemen are under arrest -- our investigators are working with them," without elaborating.
The Ukrainian Aidar volunteer battalion has claimed it captured the two Russian troops close to the town of Shchastya, which is controlled by government forces around 15 kilometers away from the rebel stronghold of Luhansk.
The battalion said on Facebook that the men captured were from Russian military intelligence, or GRU.
Lysenko said three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 17 wounded in the past 24 hours.
Two of the soldiers died in a mortar attack near the town of Svitlodarsk, northeast of separatist-controlled Donetsk.
While violence has lessened significantly since a shaky cease-fire came into force in February, both sides accuse the other of violations and casualties are reported almost daily.
(Reuters, AFP)
Good morning. Today is the anniversary of the mass deportation of the native Tatar population from Crimea in 1944. Here are a few tweets on the subject:
As today marks the anniversary of the deportation of Tatars from Crimea, now is perhaps a good time to re-up these videos that RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service provided last year to mark the 70th anniversary of those turbulent times:
WATCH: 1944 Deportation Victim: ‘I Will Never Forgive Russia’
WATCH: 1944 Deportation Victim: 'We Said Goodbye To Our Home'
