-- 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
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (and UDAR head Vitali Klitschko) were also at the European People's Party meeting in Dublin today.
Tymoshenko said: "Putin will go as far as the Western world will allow him to."
"If we allow Russia to hold a referendum under the barrel of Kalashnikovs on the annexation of Crimea, we will lose stability throughout the whole world," she said.
15:387.3.2014
New York University professor, and frequent guest on RFE/RL's Power Vertical Podcast, Mark Galeotti takes a look at Crimea's new de facto leader Sergei Aksyonov and his alleged ties with organized crime.
"While Moscow may be willing to take over the billions in dollars of subsidies which keeps it afloat, there will be pressure for new revenue streams, and also opportunities created by being in a hazy grey zone between Russia and Ukraine. Even if Russia annexes the region formally, it will presumably have to work through the local elites and law-enforcement structures, agents who have too often proven self-interested, under-controlled and over-acquisitive in the past. The scope for a new “free crime zone”—regardless of Aksyonov’s backstory—is depressingly extensive."
15:487.3.2014
Sea of flowers in Kyiv today to honor victims of the country's unrest:
"Under an agreement with Ukraine, Russia cannot base more than 25,000 men in Sevastopol and must negotiate with the Ukrainians if it wants to add new ships. The advent of a Kremlin-controlled Crimea would allow Russia to expand and modernize the fleet as it wished."
15:587.3.2014
From the wires. The head of Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom has said his company cannot supply Ukraine with gas for free and warned about a cut-off.
Aleksei Miller said Ukraine's unpaid bill for gas supplies had reached some $1.89 billion. Miller said, "This means that in fact, Ukraine has stopped paying for gas."
Miller said Gazprom might suspend supplies to Ukraine, which would also mean suspending supplies of Russian gas that transit Ukraine on route to countries further west in Europe.
Miller mentioned it could mean a return to the situation in early 2009 when disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv led to a suspension of gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine.
16:017.3.2014
More from the wires of the "USS Truxton" making its way to the Black Sea.
A U.S. warship has passed through Turkey's Bosphorus straits on its way to the Black Sea.
Turkish television on Friday showed the USS Truxton, a navy guided-missile destroyer, heading north for what the U.S. military has described as a "routine" deployment scheduled well before the crisis in Ukraine.
The ship is due to conduct training exercises with naval forces from NATO allies Bulgaria and Romania.
Earlier this week, Washington announced plans to put more U.S. fighter jets on a NATO air patrol mission in the Baltics to reassure allies alarmed by Russia's effective seizure of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
16:047.3.2014
Interpretermag.com has a report about hacker attacks against Ukrainian media and the interim government.
"'The nature of the attacks is such that the control centers are scattered around, and an attack could be launched from anywhere – from Russia, Ukraine, America or China,' Yevgeny Bespalov, General Director of the Friendly Runet told Gazeta.ru. 'They are difficult to identify.'"
16:047.3.2014
And more on the recent IMF visit to Kyiv. The Ukrainian coffers are pretty much empty and the country desperately needs financial assistance:
The head of a delegation from the International Monetary Fund that just completed a visit to Kyiv said he was "impressed with the authorities' determination."
Reza Moghadam said Friday he had "productive" talks with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his economic team during the mission's March 6-7 visit.
Moghadam said the IMF is prepared to help "the people of Ukraine and support the authorities' economic program to put Ukraine firmly on the path of good economic governance and sustainable growth while protecting the poor and vulnerable."
The IMF team also met with acting President and speaker of parliament Oleksander Turchynov, Governor of the National Bank Stepan Kubiv, and the finance and economic development and trade ministers.
The new Ukrainian government has said it inherited virtually empty coffers after the previous government was ousted.
