-- Self-appointed leaders of the Ukrainian separatist region of Donetsk appealed to Russia to consider absorbing it to "restore historic justice" and to send in troops.
-- Pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk said they would not allow voting for the May 25 presidential election to be conducted.
-- Diplomats say the European Union agreed to impose sanctions against 13 additional individuals and two companies, believed to be the first time the EU has targeted companies over the Ukraine crisis.
-- Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov called the votes a "sham" and the United States said they were illegal and merely "an attempt to create further division and disorder in the country."
-- RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service said one of its affiliate radio stations in Donetsk was taken off the air by gunmen and replaced by a pro-Russian broadcaster.
-- The Kremlin said Ukrainian officials in Kyiv should hold talks with pro-Russian separatists on the results of the self-rule referendums, adding that it respected the "expression of the people's will."
I'm not sure what this photo is about, but it is too good not to share. This, by the way, is Cheburashka, the Soviet cartoon character after whom some Russian officials would like to name a proposed Russia-only version of the Internet:
08:342.5.2014
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told journalists that the Ukrainian security operation near Slovyansk has "destroyed the last hope" of the viability of the April 17 Geneva agreement.
He also said that President Vladimir Putin is being constantly informed about developments in eastern Ukraine.
Peskov also said Russia has been "unable to contact" Vladimir Lukin, Putin's envoy to Ukraine who was sent to southeastern Ukraine on May 1 to help secure the release of OSCE military monitors being held by pro-Russia militants in Slovyansk.
UPDATE: A few moments after Peskov made this comment about Lukin, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported it had managed to speak with Lukin by telephone.
08:292.5.2014
AFP is reporting that Russia has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help stop the Ukrainian security operation near Slovyansk. The agency quotes Russian OSCE Ambassador Andrei Kelin as saying: "We have gotten in touch with the OSCE leadership over the offensive of the armed forces and demanded that they take steps to stop this reprisal raid."
08:212.5.2014
New York University political scientist Mark Galeotti (regular guest on RFE/RL's Power Vertical podcast) writes on his blog that Russia's success in Ukraine could lead to increased funding and prestige for the GRU military-intelligence service:
"Ukraine may well change all that. Being “persecuted” by Kyiv and Europe is a mark of pride in Putin’s new Russia, and is as good as a medal. More to the point, it is clear that GRU operators, Spetsnaz, are active on the ground in eastern Ukraine, just as they were in Crimea, and they seem to be doing their nefarious job well. In this new age of asymmetric military-political conflict, such assets are a key strength of Russia’s regional power-projection capability; they are less valuable as straightforward war-fighters and much more so as covert operators and the facilitators of other deniable operations. Not only may the Ukraine conflict help stop–or at least bring a temporary ceasefire to–internecine struggles within the Russian security apparatus, it may well prove the saviour of the GRU in its current configuration."
08:152.5.2014
There have been several alarming, but unconfirmed reports that BuzzFeed journalist Mike Giglio and his local fixer have gone missing near Slovyansk:
08:102.5.2014
Writing in "The Guardian," columnist Seumas Milne explains the Ukraine crisis from the Kremlin's point of view.
"The reality is that, after two decades of eastward Nato expansion, this crisis was triggered by the west's attempt to pull Ukraine decisively into its orbit and defence structure, via an explicitly anti-Moscow EU association agreement. Its rejection led to the Maidan protests and the installation of an anti-Russian administration – rejected by half the country – that went on to sign the EU and International Monetary Fund agreements regardless.
No Russian government could have acquiesced in such a threat from territory that was at the heart of both Russia and the Soviet Union. Putin's absorption of Crimea and support for the rebellion in eastern Ukraine is clearly defensive, and the red line now drawn: the east of Ukraine, at least, is not going to be swallowed up by Nato or the EU."
08:072.5.2014
If you read Russian, RIA-Novosti has a Ukraine liveblog running now here. RFE/RL's is better, but in the interests of complete information....
08:022.5.2014
Purported photograph of locals blocking a road near Andreyevka after Ukrainian forces dismantled a roadblock:
08:002.5.2014
For background, Reuters has this piece on how Russia has reformed its military since the 2008 war with Georgia. "The result...is a more streamlined force that can mobilize key units in a matter of days and support President Vladimir Putin's goal to reassert Russian influence over countries it once controlled within the former Soviet Union."
