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Aleksandr Malykhin, chairman of Luhansk's separatist election commission, announces results of the referendum in the Luhansk region on May 12.
Aleksandr Malykhin, chairman of Luhansk's separatist election commission, announces results of the referendum in the Luhansk region on May 12.

Live Blog: Crisis In Ukraine (Archive)

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-- 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."

-- Insurgents in eastern Ukraine said nearly 90 percent of voters backed self-rule in the votes.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
10:28 9.5.2014
What's running through the minds of Donetsk's veterans?
10:51 9.5.2014


​Dmytro Shurhalo of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service writes on the decision of Kyiv authorities to abandon the St. George ribbon in favor of a poppy flower for their Victory Day symbol.

"The emblem -- a stylized red-and-black flower with the dates of the Second World War, 1939-1945, and the words 'Never Again' -- was designed by Kharkiv artist Serhiy Mishakin. A similar symbol is used in European countries. This emblem symbolizes not victory, but the memory of those killed in the war. Above all, Victory Day is a day of remembrance and praise for the heroism of ordinary soldiers -- not the glorification of the state.

"Nearly 7 million Ukrainians fought in the Red Army. And no normal person would say we should deprive these people of this holiday," says Oleksandr Lysenko, who heads studies of Ukraine's World War II history at the National Academy of Sciences. "The change is only meant to focus back on the people who won the war. We have to humanize victory."


You can read the full text (in Ukrainian) here:
11:09 9.5.2014
Meanwhile in Mariupol...
11:24 9.5.2014
Reports from Mariupol suggest a gun battle has broken out for control of a local police station. Pro-Kyiv law-enforcement and Ukrainian army tanks have entered the city and are fighting against separatists and local police who refused to follow Kyiv orders. At least one person has been confirmed dead and several more injured.
11:30 9.5.2014
Our own Glenn Kates @gkates is in Odesa and following Victory Day proceedings there:
11:32 9.5.2014
11:35 9.5.2014
11:49 9.5.2014


Having already spoken in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to put in his second public Victory Day appareance in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. For a reminder of Crimea's historic significance for Russia, check out RFE/RL's photo gallery on the historic siege of Sevastopol, one of the few Soviet victories in the early years of World War Two.

See the gallery here:
11:53 9.5.2014
Live stream of clashes in Mariupol:
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11:54 9.5.2014
More from RFE's Glenn Kates in Odesa:

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