-- 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."
Denis Pushilin, the self-declared head of the "Donetsk People's Republic," has issued a decree imposing sanctions against several U.S. and EU politicians. The list of individuals banned from entering the "Donetsk republic" includes U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
13:0111.5.2014
Russia, which first joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, has long been one of its most enthusiastic members, embracing its ethos of kitschy pop like a natural. But this year, as its relationship with Western Europe founders over its annexation of Crimea and separatist referendums in eastern Ukraine, it has suddenly found much to dislike in Eurovision.
Seems as if something is happening in Krasnoarmiysk, in the Donetsk region. An offensive, perhaps, by Ukrainian forces:
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12:0911.5.2014
The story of Dmitry Rogozin's "provocative" trip to Moldova continues, as our Central Newsroom reports, via Interfax and ITAR-TASS:
Moldovan officials confiscated boxes of lists from a Russian jet in Chisinau reportedly signed by residents of the breakaway Transdniester region urging Russia to annex the territory. The boxes were taken from the plane carrying Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin back to Moscow after his visit to Transdniester for Victory Day celebrations. But Rogozin said most of the boxes arrived in Moscow.
He wrote on his Facebook page on May 11 that his delegation "brought home the message of Transdniestrians to the leadership of Russia."
Moldova's Foreign Ministry said the documents were seized to check "their lawfulness" and said the trip by Rogozin and his delegation of Duma deputies was marked by "provocative declarations."
Moldova's Russian-speaking Transdniester region has de facto independence and has asked Russia to annex it.
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11:5211.5.2014
Harrowing, chaotic footage, apparently from the deadly fighting on May 9 in Mariupol:
