15:27
10.5.2014
Hromadske.TV tweeting that all these ballots were already marked "Yes" in favor of splitting from Ukraine.
15:22
10.5.2014
15:05
10.5.2014
For the record, we won't be running any of the "Putin plays hockey, scores like a mini-Ovechkin" photos in this space. :-)
15:00
10.5.2014
14:39
10.5.2014
AFP has quoted French President Francois Hollande as saying today that the sale of two Mistral-class warships to Russia will continue "for now." "The contract was signed in 2011, it is being carried out and will be completed by next October," he said in Stralsund, Germany, where he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, issuing a joint warning to Moscow concerning its actions in Ukraine.
14:36
10.5.2014
Interfax Ukraine now quotes the Ukrainian State Aviation Service as saying that authority never denied overflight rights to the "plane used by" Russian Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin, which is presumably the aircraft that the Russian delegation -- minus Rogozin, who took another flight to Moscow -- is now aboard. That plane is still sitting in Chisinau, according to the latest Russian Interfax report.
14:21
10.5.2014
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin has posted a photo of himself back in Moscow in a taunt to Ukrainian authorities whom he accused of denying overflight rights to his airplane today.
He boasts that "the military-industrial complex has its own means. I'm already in Moscow and the junta - [left] with nothing."
Russian tweets and agency reports suggest Russian parliamentary members who traveled to Transdniester with Rogozin were less fortunate, however, and their aircraft was prevented from passing through Ukrainian airspace and "turned back and forced to land in Chisinau without any explanations" (Interfax quote).
Here's lawmaker Vladimir Medinsky's tweet lamenting that his "delegation of the Russian Federation was forced to return to Chisinau, threatened with a Ukrainian forced landing."
Interfax reports that Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, Duma aide Mikhail Krotov, and lawmakers Leonid Slutsky, Sergei Zhigarov, and Aleksei Zhuravlyov were also aboard.
He boasts that "the military-industrial complex has its own means. I'm already in Moscow and the junta - [left] with nothing."
Russian tweets and agency reports suggest Russian parliamentary members who traveled to Transdniester with Rogozin were less fortunate, however, and their aircraft was prevented from passing through Ukrainian airspace and "turned back and forced to land in Chisinau without any explanations" (Interfax quote).
Here's lawmaker Vladimir Medinsky's tweet lamenting that his "delegation of the Russian Federation was forced to return to Chisinau, threatened with a Ukrainian forced landing."
Interfax reports that Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, Duma aide Mikhail Krotov, and lawmakers Leonid Slutsky, Sergei Zhigarov, and Aleksei Zhuravlyov were also aboard.
13:30
10.5.2014
Encapsulates why "on the ground" in eastern Ukraine does not necessarily translate into reliable reporting:
13:16
10.5.2014
NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow has warned against attempts to bolster Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Moldova, with Kyiv scrambling to quell a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking to RFE/RL Moldovan Service correspondent Liliana Barbarosie ahead of his visit to Moldova next week, Vershbow said Moldova was facing "increasing pressure" due to the crisis in Ukraine.
He called on Moscow to "respect Moldova's territorial integrity" and said the alliance would regard "very negatively" any attempt to bring Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region "closer to Russia."
Vershbow said he would discuss efforts to increase Moldova's military capacities during his visit to Chisinau.
Moldova is not a NATO member but joined the alliance's Partnership for Peace program in 1994.
The standoff in Ukraine, where government troops have been fighting rebels in the Russian-leaning east following Russia's annexation of Crimea, has sparked fears Transdniestr could be Moscow's next target.
NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, warned in March that Russian troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border were well positioned to invade Transdniester.
Speaking to RFE/RL Moldovan Service correspondent Liliana Barbarosie ahead of his visit to Moldova next week, Vershbow said Moldova was facing "increasing pressure" due to the crisis in Ukraine.
He called on Moscow to "respect Moldova's territorial integrity" and said the alliance would regard "very negatively" any attempt to bring Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region "closer to Russia."
Vershbow said he would discuss efforts to increase Moldova's military capacities during his visit to Chisinau.
Moldova is not a NATO member but joined the alliance's Partnership for Peace program in 1994.
The standoff in Ukraine, where government troops have been fighting rebels in the Russian-leaning east following Russia's annexation of Crimea, has sparked fears Transdniestr could be Moscow's next target.
NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, warned in March that Russian troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border were well positioned to invade Transdniester.
12:59
10.5.2014
Self-styled "Donetsk People's Republic" election commissioner Roman Lyagin speaking today to Reuters in Donetsk:
"My task is to give every resident of our region the opportunity to vote, then to determine the final number and to inform mass media and the whole world community about it. How the people of Donbass will deal with the result -- I don't know, but I think the Crimean scenario is appropriate."