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Ukrainian acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (right) welcomes U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting in Kyiv today.
Ukrainian acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (right) welcomes U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting in Kyiv today.
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Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

Please note that our Ukraine Crisis Live Blog has been moved to this address.
11:17 19.4.2014
11:37 19.4.2014
"The Last Mistake of Nicholas I -- The Crimean War." An interesting piece (in Russian) by historian Aleksandr Yanov published in "Istoricheskaya Pravda" (Historical Truth).
"Nicholas I had great power ideas and a Napoleon complex and this led Russia into the disasterous Crimean War in 1853-56."

Pavel Sheramet tweets: "I read this and it gave me goosebumps."

11:38 19.4.2014
11:40 19.4.2014
Channel 5's Myroslava Petsa on motivations for defections in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv:


11:41 19.4.2014
12:01 19.4.2014
Reuters' have compiled a special report on the deterioration in U.S.-Russian relations since the George Bush's first term as president. It really provides a nice overview of how things have declined to the current impasse:
What Bush and other American officials saw as democracy spreading across the former Soviet bloc, Putin saw as pro-American regime change.View gallery
[File photo of U.S. President Bush walking past Russian …]
U.S. President George W. Bush (R) walks past Russian President Vladimir Putin as G8 leaders and outr …The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, without U.N. authorization and over the objections of France, Germany and Russia, was a turning point for Putin. He said the war made a mockery of American claims of promoting democracy abroad and upholding international law.

Putin was also deeply skeptical of U.S. efforts to nurture democracy in the former Soviet bloc, where the State Department and American nonprofit groups provided training and funds to local civil-society groups. In public speeches, he accused the United States of meddling.

In late 2003, street protests in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, known as the Rose Revolution, led to the election of a pro-Western leader. Four months later, street protests in Ukraine that became known as the Orange Revolution resulted in a pro-Western president taking office there.

Putin saw both developments as American-backed plots and slaps in the face, so soon after his assistance in Afghanistan, according to senior U.S. officials.

In 2006, Bush and Putin's sparring over democracy intensified. In a press conference at the first G-8 summit hosted by Russia, the two presidents had a testy exchange. Bush said that the United States was promoting freedom in Iraq, which was engulfed in violence. Putin openly mocked him.

"We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq," Putin said, smiling as the audience erupted into laughter, "I will tell you quite honestly."

Read more here
12:02 19.4.2014
Here's an interesting development.

12:21 19.4.2014
It's unconfirmed, but there's a lot of Twitter chatter about Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev being allowed back into Crimea:

12:29 19.4.2014
More on Dzhemilev:

12:45 19.4.2014
Channel 5 now reporting that Mustafa Dzhemilev has been allowed into Crimea.

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