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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
16:32 7.3.2014
16:41 7.3.2014
Interfax was reporting earlier that OSCE monitors were refused entry -- once again -- to Crimea. More from the wires:
The Organization for Security and Co-operation In Europe (OSCE) says its military observers have again been denied access to Crimea and are heading back to the Ukrainian city of Kherson to plan their next step.

The OSCE's announcement via Twitter on Friday came after news agencies reported that armed men at a checkpoint blocked two buses carrying OSCE observers from entering Crimea.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday that the OSCE observers had failed to obtain "official invitations" from the Crimean authorities.

The OSCE team of 47 military and civilian observers was similarly blocked on Thursday and spent the night in Kherson, the nearest big town north of the peninsula.
17:08 7.3.2014
If you're looking for some weekend listening, you could do a lot worse than listen to our very own Brian Whitmore's Power Vertical podcast. It's on Crimea.

17:29 7.3.2014
18:25 7.3.2014
Meanwhile, the Paralympics is opening in Sochi
19:39 7.3.2014
Another interesting piece on the role of the far-right in the Maidan protests:

The new deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Sych, is from Svoboda; National Security Secretary Andriy Parubiy is a co-founder of the neo-Nazi Social-National Party, Svoboda's earlier incarnation; the deputy secretary for National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the head of Right Sector. Chief prosecutor Oleh Makhnitsky is another Svoboda member, as are the ministers for Agriculture and Ecology (Channel 4, 3/5/14). In short, if the prospect of fascists taking power again in Europe worries you, you should be very worried about Ukraine.
19:48 7.3.2014
More preparation for annexation? From Interfax and ITAR-TASS:

Authorities in Crimea have stopped the broadcasting of two more Ukrainian national TV channels and replaced them with broadcasts from Russian channels.

According to reports Friday five Ukrainian TV channels and one Crimean TV channel have now been taken off the air in the Crimean Peninsula and replaced with Russian channels.

In Kyiv, authorities have requested television and radio broadcasting authorities to "temporarily" suspend retranslation of Russian channels "Vesti," "Rossiya 24," "ORT," and "RTR Planeta."

These moves come amid tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over the presence of pro-Russian forces in Crimea and attempts by Crimean officials to hold a referendum on joining Russia.
20:08 7.3.2014
Our Belarus Service took to the streets to gauge people's reactions to the events in Ukraine.

Vox Pop: Belarusians Weigh In On Ukraine Crisis
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20:21 7.3.2014
20:51 7.3.2014
BREAKING: Western news agencies are reporting armed men, thought to be pro-Russian militia, have entered a Ukrainian military post in Crimea.

Details are still sketchy, but Ukrainian defense officials say members of the militia are now in talks with Ukrainian commanders at the missile defense base near Sevastopol. No violence has been reported.

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