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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.
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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
17:19 22.3.2014
A couple tweets from Roland Oliphant of "The Telegraph" from Belbek:


17:22 22.3.2014
Reports say U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss the Ukraine crisis in The Hague.

Via AFP:

MOSCOW, March 22, 2014 (AFP) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry will discuss the Ukraine crisis on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in The Hague next week, a Russian foreign ministry official said Saturday.

"A meeting between Lavrov and Kerry is planned on the sidelines of the summit in The Hague," to be held Monday and Tuesday, Interfax news agency quoted the official as saying.

The exact timing of the encounter was not immediately known.
17:26 22.3.2014
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the first leader of a G-7 country to visit Kyiv since the fall of Viktor Yanukovych.

Here's AFP's report:

Canada's premier said Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send troops into Crimea and annex it from Ukraine encourages aggrieved nations to "arm themselves to the teeth".

Stephen Harper, the first leader from the Group of Seven top industrialised powers to visit Kiev since last month's fall of Ukraine's pro-Kremlin regime, said the consequences of Putin's actions "will be felt far beyond the borders of Ukraine or even the European continent itself".

He cited a 1994 agreement under which Ukraine gave up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in return for sovereignty guarantees from Russia and Western powers as the reason why some nations may now decide to stock up on nuclear weapons.

"By his open repudiation of the Budapest memorandum, President Putin has undermined international confidence in the protection afforded by such agreements," the Canadian leader said.

"Ukraine relinquished the nuclear weapons it inherited from the former Soviet Union on the basis of an explicit Russian guarantee of its territorial integrity.

"By breaching that guarantee, President Putin has provided a rationale for those elsewhere, who needed little more encouragement than that already furnished by pride or grievance, to arm themselves to the teeth."
17:29 22.3.2014
17:31 22.3.2014
And "freedom of the press" comes to Crimea:

17:31 22.3.2014
17:32 22.3.2014
Photo of Ukrainian submarine seized by Russia:
17:42 22.3.2014
From Intefax, Crimean Prime Minister calls on Ukrainians to resist EU:

SIMFEROPOL. March 22 (Interfax) - Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, has urged residents of Ukraine to resist the Ukrainian leadership's policy of integration with the European Union which, he
said,is ruinous for the country, the Kryminform news agency reported on
Saturday.

In an address to the people of Ukraine, Aksyonov said that "a movement in support of our traditional and solely correct political and economic union with the Russian state is broadening" in many regions of
Ukraine. "I am urging you for the sake of our common benefit to supportit. Rise and struggle for a decent future, for our common future,"Aksyonov said.
17:47 22.3.2014
Turns out one of the civilians being evacuated by masked men we posted earlier...


...is David Herszenhorn of "The New York Times"...

17:48 22.3.2014

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