-- 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 Muzychkoearlier 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
This collection of poems on the "heavenly hundred," the victims of the Euromaidan protests, is on offer at Kyiv's parliament. Buyers simply leave money on the table.
Сборник стихов о Небесной сотни. Автор оставил на столе в парламенте, люди проходят, берут сборник, оставляют деньги pic.twitter.com/P9apnU2wV8
Reports are still pouring in about the purported arrest of Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash in Austria.
Vienna police spokesman Mario Hejl confirmed to RFE/RL that a Ukrainian businessman identified as Dmitry F. had been detained in the city on March 12 but said he could not give his surname "due to data protection."
He said the Vienna police carried out the arrest "for U.S. authorities," which have been investigating Firtash since 2006. The oligarch is suspected of bribery and forming a criminal organization.
"He is in the hands of the Austrian judiciary, in Vienna, in a relevant detention center," Hejl told RFE/RL. "The rest will be decided by justice."
Firtash, one of Ukraine's richest men, has close links to Russia and to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He has been involved in the gas, chemicals, media, banking, and real estate sectors.
A number of European institutions have received donations from Firtash, including Britain's Cambridge University. He is a member of the university's Guild of Benefactors.
14:2013.3.2014
Ukrainians held a (mostly) silent protest in Simferopol today to protest Russian-imposed censorship and restrictions on media and speech and to demand a Russian withdrawal, standing with tape over their mouths and holding blank sheets of paper.
These latest comments from Putin have come in on the wires:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Paralympic athletes that Moscow is not to blame for the crisis in Crimea.
At a meeting with Paralympic delegations in Sochi, Putin thanked officials for keeping politics out of the Winter Paralympics, which are being hosted by Russia and end on March 16.
Putin did not name Ukraine but said he was referring to the "complicated circumstances which you all know about very well."
"I would like to stress that Russia was not the initiator of the circumstances that we are now facing," he added. (AP, Reuters, Interfax)
13:4613.3.2014
Despite huge line at a Simferopol branch of Oshad Bank, it's calm and people not panicking. Limit 3000UAH, regular amount. #Crimea
Abkhazia, Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway region, says it's ready to dispatch observers to Crimea to monitor the March 16 referendum.
Valery Bganba, the speaker of Abkhazia's parliament, told Interfax the legislature had already formed a group of lawmakers (!) willing to monitor Crimea's referendum on joining Russia.
