-- 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
Just over a week before his death overnight on March 24-25, ultranationalist Right Sector leader Oleksandr Muzychko told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that he was urging the government in Kyiv to fight the "foreign occupation" of his country. Here's a clip from that interview:
FYI: New Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhaylo Koval, the former head of the State Border Service, was briefly kidnapped earlier this month.
Here's the Interfax report:
Colonel-General of the State Border Service of Ukraine Mykhailo Koval, who has been previously kidnapped by unidentified persons in Yalta, has established contact to inform that he is safe and well.
"Colonel-General of Ukraine's State Border Service Mykhailo Koval has been freed thanks to taken measures. He has established contact to inform that he is safe and well and continues his work in Crimea, the State Border Service's press service said on Wednesday.
Koval was reported to have been kidnapped by 40 unidentified men not far from the State Border Service's Yalta coast guard boats division on Wednesday. Koval was surrounded by a group of men, predominantly bikers, when he left the exit control point with other officers, the press service said. Then he was forced into an SUV, which drove in an unknown direction.
12:1425.3.2014
The fates of up to six Ukrainian military officers remain unknown following the takeover of Crimean bases by Russian forces. The commander of a Ukrainian air base in Crimea, Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, was captured on March 22 after Russian forces stormed the Belbek air base. As we noted earlier, Mamchur's wife, Larisa, told our Ukrainian Service that she has had no communication with her husband but believes he remains under arrest. Mamchur's aides believe he is being held in the Russian Black Sea Fleet's home port of Sevastopol in Crimea.
Yesterday, Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian military base in Feodosia and captured the commander of a marine battalion, Dmytro Delyatytskyy, and his deputy, Rostislav Lomtev.
The New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) says three other Ukrainian military officers and three activists also remain missing in Crimea.
12:1625.3.2014
NEWS FLASH: Crimean attorney-general inspiring Japanese anime art:
NATO has expressed concern about all those Russian troops deployed to the border with Ukraine. From our newsroom:
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance is "very much concerned" about a Russian military buildup on Ukraine's borders. Speaking in Brussels following talks with Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, Rasmussen said that NATO stood ready to defend all its members and that the alliance was discussing with Kyiv ways to enhance its support for nonmember Ukraine. Djukanovic said his country hopes to be offered NATO membership at a summit of the alliance in September. Bosnia, Georgia, and Macedonia have also expressed interest in joining NATO, but Rasmussen said the alliance has yet to make any final decision on membership applications.
12:5025.3.2014
The World Public Forum--Dialogue Of Civilizations that was founded by Vladimir Yakunin, the Russian Railways boss and purported Putin crony, has criticized the U.S. sanctions announced last week targeting Yakunin and others in the Kremlin's "inner circle." The group "demands that Dr. Yakunin enjoys [sic] free access to all United Nations Headquarters, including New York." It says in a statement spotted by RFE/RL Washington correspondent Carl Schreck:
We consider it to be a particular mistake to "sanction" Vladimir Yakunin who is not only President of Russian Railways but also the founder and president of the World Public Forum -Dialogue of Civilizations which enjoys consultative status in United Nations' ECOSOC. For more than a decade Vladimir Yakunin has devoted a lot of efforts and activities to dialogue among different religions, cultures and nations as the alternative to armed conflicts. He has stood up against hatred, xenophobia, antisemitism as well as Islamophobia.
Many people around the world know of and greatly value Dr. Yakunin's extraordinary and tireless work for peace and justice and the resolution of conflicts.
Yakunin is being designated because of his official position in the Russian government, but he is also a close confidant of Putin. Yakunin regularly consults with Putin on issues regarding the Russian Railways company. In addition, Yakunin accompanies Putin on many domestic and international visits. Yakunin met Putin while both were working in St. Petersburg. Yakunin decided to create a business center in the city and contacted Putin for his support. In addition, Yakunin became a member of the board of the Baltic Maritime Steamship Company on Putin’s instructions. Yakunin and Putin were also neighbors in the elite dacha community on the shore of Lake Komsomolsk and they served as cofounders of the Ozero Dacha Cooperative in November 1996.
12:5425.3.2014
Freshly chosen acting Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval looking decidedly unenthused about his new role during parliamentary proceedings today in which he was tabbed to succeed Ihor Tenyukh.
13:1725.3.2014
Naturalized Russian actor Gerard Depardieu, who famously took Russian citizenship to protest French tax policy, is shilling for a new line of "Proud To Be Russian" watches in his work for Swiss watchmaker Cvstos, the "Hollywood Reporter" says. It adds:
The actor has also avoided any comments on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the Black Sea peninsular region of Crimea, which recently seceded from Ukraine to Russia. Incidentally, last year, the Ukrainian media reported that Depardieu had purchased vineyards near the Crimean town of Bakhchysarai.
Russia's RT channel chronicled Depardieu's ultimately victorious plight to get his hands on some land in Crimea to get into the wine business there:
The star of Cyrano de Bergerac was set to acquire several vineyards in the sunny republic of Crimea back in 2005. For reasons unknown however, local authorities refused to sell them to the French actor, despite his friendship with the then Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko.
But the star didn’t lose his bottle, and now finally the 63-year-old wine connoisseur has become the proud owner of a winery in Ukraine, reportedly set to produce table and sparkling wines.
13:2025.3.2014
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has launched two new websites with news and current-affairs content targeting readers in Ukraine's Crimea region. The sites are currently published in the Russian and Tatar languages and will soon include Ukrainian, as well. RFE/RL, based in Prague, broadcasts to 21 countries in 28 languages and is a private, nonprofit organization funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
