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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
10:28 7.3.2014
RFE/RL's Ukraine Service is reporting that nationalist Right Sector leader Dmitro Yarosh will run in the May 25 presidential election.
10:31 7.3.2014
Russian analyst and head of the Moscow Carnegie Center Dmitry Trenin says Washington's adoption of visa sanctions for Russian politicians is "a return to a Cold War situation."

10:32 7.3.2014
11:23 7.3.2014
Some bites from Ukrainian Prime Minister Areniy Yatsenyuk's press conference in Kyiv:

"No one in the civilized world will recognize the results of a so-called referendum carried out by these so-called authorities."

"We have clearly declared our readiness to hold talks with the Russian government. But in order for that to happen, our Russian neighbors have to become [our] Russian partners. Firstly, they have to withdraw [their] troops; secondly, fulfill the bilateral and multilateral agreements that Russia has signed; thirdly, to halt support for the separatists and terrorists who are on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea."
11:24 7.3.2014
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang spoke in Beijing about Ukraine today. Here are some bites:

"China has consistently opposed the easy use of sanctions in international relations, or using sanctions as a threat. In the present situation, we hope that all sides can take steps that avoid a further worsening in tensions and work hard to find a way for a political solution to the crisis. This is the fundamental way out [of this crisis]."

"We call on all sides in Ukraine to peacefully resolve the relevant issue within a legal, orderly framework via dialogue and negotiations and earnestly safeguard the interests of all the people in Ukraine and bring order back as soon as possible and maintain peace and stability in this region."
11:30 7.3.2014
RFE/RL's Balkans Service has a feature today (in Serbian), including video, on Serbian volunteers who have gone to Crimea to support the pro-Russian side there. The commander of the volunteer force, Milutin Malisic is quoted as saying "Know, brother Russians, that we are one people and the same Slavic blood runs through our veins."

Serbian analyst Izabela Kisic is quoted as saying "these are people who go from war zone to war zone and who are getting louder today, not only in Serbia but throughout Europe."

"Are certain political movement or political parties behind them?" she asks. "Such people, and we have numerous documents in domestic war crimes courts and in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, are the ones who committed the worst crimes."
11:35 7.3.2014
Polish political analyst Marek Menkiszak has published a piece looking at "Russia's strategy in the Ukrainian crisis."

"Russia’s maximum plan is apparently to bring about a reconstruction of the Ukrainian government that would involve including pro-Russian politicians, and a change of the country’s system of government, with the eastern and southern regions gaining broad political and economic autonomy," Menkiszak writes. "f those plans fail, Russia will probably seek to partially neutralise its defeat by backing the independence of Crimea or even its incorporation into the Russian Federation in the longer term, without giving up further attempts at destabilising Ukraine."
11:37 7.3.2014
Activists in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa are organizing a pro-Russia rally for March 10:

11:44 7.3.2014
China does seem to be changing its tone on the situation in Ukraine. At first, Beijing seemed to stick to its traditional position of opposing any infringement on national sovereignty. Today, however, a Foreign Ministry spokesman focused on criticizing "the easy use of sanctions in international relations" and called for "dialogue and negotiations" to resolve the crisis.

China's official Xinua news agency posted a commentary criticizing "the West's strategy for installing so-called democratic and pro-Western Ukrainian government" for creating "a mess they do not have the capacity or wisdom to clean."

In their response, "Russian leaders once again proved their credibility and shrewdness in planning and executing effective counter moves."
11:50 7.3.2014
Leading Ukrainian artists and cultural figures have made a direct video appeal to the Russian people to oppose the Russian government's incursion into Ukraine. "We are one family." "Fighting with Russia is just insane and incomprehensible." "If politicians can't agree on peace, then we will speak. We are against war." "The Russian and Ukrainian people are brothers."

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