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Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya speaks to the UN General Assembly on March 27.
Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya speaks to the UN General Assembly on March 27.

Live Blog: UN Backs Ukraine Integrity

Final Summary For March 27

-- The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that affirms Ukraine's territorial integrity.

-- The IMF has announced "a staff-level agreement" with Kyiv on assistance of $14 billion-$18 billion in conjunction with a reform program that will "unlock" up to $27 billion over the next two years, pending final approval next month. Tthe U.S. Congress has also passed an aid bill for Ukraine.

-- Ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko has announced plans to run for president.

-- Members of the Right Sector have been holding a demonstration outside the Ukrainian parliament building to vent their anger at the killing of prominent member Oleksander Muzychko earlier in the week.

-- Six Ukrainian military officers detained by pro-Russian troops in Crimea have been released, including Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, but five others are still being held captive.

-- Anonymous sources quoted by CNN say U.S. intelligence "concludes it is more likely than previously thought that Russian forces will enter eastern Ukraine."

-- U.S. President Barack Obama, in the keynote speech of his visit to Europe, chided Russia for its use of "brute force" in Ukraine and vowed that a determined alliance of the United States and Europe will prevail over time.


*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
18:02 8.3.2014
17:46 8.3.2014
17:41 8.3.2014
And this via AFP: U.S. President Barack Obama and French President warn Russia of "new measures" if Moscow doesn't de-escalate crisis in Ukraine.

Presidents Francois Hollande of France and Barack Obama of the United States on Saturday warned of "new measures" against Russia if it fails to make progress on defusing the crisis in Ukraine, the French presidency said.

In a phone call on Saturday, Hollande and Obama insisted on the "need for Russia to withdraw forces sent to Crimea since the end of February and to do everything to allow the deployment of international observers," it said.
17:37 8.3.2014
17:35 8.3.2014
More scenes from the pro-Ukraine protest in Simferopol today:

17:33 8.3.2014
17:31 8.3.2014
All the Russian troop movement today has gotten Carl Bildt's attention:

17:29 8.3.2014
RFE/RL's Russian Service reports on a protest in Crimea by women -- on International Wonen's Day -- against Russia's military incursion in Crimea.
17:24 8.3.2014
Russia's Interfax news agency is reporting that former oil tycoon MIkhail Khodorkovsky will give a talk in Kyiv on March 10 on "rights and freedoms."
17:22 8.3.2014
MIchael McFaul, the recently departed U.S. Ambassador to Russia, says in Slate that Russia's intervention in Crimea effectively kills Vladimir Putin's Eurasian Union project.

The money quote:

“I don’t think it’s a fait accompli that Crimea will be occupied forever,” he said. “It’s a big if. But if it happens, it destroys the project. There’s no doubt about it. Most importantly, if that tragic scenario plays out, you have made sure that the rest of Ukraine will never have any interest in joining a Eurasian Union. It just changes the electoral politics within Ukraine. The only mechanism he’ll have left is coercive power—he’ll coerce countries into joining. But the size of the Ukrainian economy and population just dwarfs everybody else in the former Soviet Union who could join. Ukraine was always the big prize, and he’s just guaranteed that it’s now over.”

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