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A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.
A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

-- EDITOR'S NOTE: We have started a new Ukraine Live Blog as of September 3, 2018. You can find it here.

-- Tens of thousands of people gathered on September 2 in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to mourn a top rebel leader who was recently killed in a bomb attack.

-- Prominent Ukrainian historian Mykola Shityuk has been found dead in his home city of Mykolaiv, police said on September 2.​

-- Ukraine says it has imprisoned the man it accused of being recruited by Russia’s secret services to organize a murder plot against self-exiled Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.

-- Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for the killing of a top separatist leader in eastern Ukraine.

-- Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the head of the breakaway separatist entity known as the Donetsk People’s Republic, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on August 31.

-- The United States is ready to widen arms supplies to Ukraine to help build up the country's naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told The Guardian.

-- The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church in Istanbul has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow.

*Time stamps on the blog refer to local time in Ukraine

20:18 18.2.2018

20:17 18.2.2018

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20:16 18.2.2018

20:14 18.2.2018

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Here's another item from our news desk:

Kyiv Demonstrators Call For Poroshenko's Removal

A protester carries a balloon with a picture showing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the words "Poroshenko is not my president" during a mass march and rally in Kyiv on February 18.
A protester carries a balloon with a picture showing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the words "Poroshenko is not my president" during a mass march and rally in Kyiv on February 18.

A few thousand demonstrators have gathered in Ukraine's capital to call for the removal of President Petro Poroshenko.

The February 18 rally was called by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was expelled from Ukraine on February 12. Saakashvili has been calling for Poroshenko's removal as part of a campaign against corruption.

Officials estimated that some 2,500 people participated in the demonstration in Kyiv, while around 3,000 police were deployed to keep order. The AFP news agency estimated that the crowd may have numbered as many as 10,000 people.

There were smaller demonstrations in other cities in western and central Ukraine.

Poroshenko invited Saakashvili to server as governor of the Odesa region in 2015, but Saakashvili resigned after 1 1/2 years, complaining of massive corruption under Ukrainian president.

Also on February 18, Russian media reported that several dozen far-right Ukrainian demonstrators pelted the building of the Rossotrudnichestvo aid agency with stones and defaced it with paint.

Rossotrudnichestvo head Eleonora Mitrofanova told journalists in Moscow that no one was injured, but "quite significant damage was done to the building."​

Kyiv Demonstrators Attack Institutions Linked To Russia
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Demonstrators the same day smashed windows at branches of two Russian banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank.

The incidents came one day after nationalists gathered at the same building. They tore the Russian flag off the building and burned it.

The Russian Embassy on February 18 sent a formal complaint to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry about the February 17 incident.

"Center employees were subjected to verbal abuse, insults, and threats," the complaint said. "That also involved physical assault."

The embassy claimed that security officers "passively watched the development of the situation," which resulted in "huge material damage to the building."

A spokeswoman for the Kyiv police said an investigation would be opened if complaints were received.

"So far, we have no information that anybody has been hurt as a result of these actions," Oksana Blishchik said. "No one has been detained."

With reporting by dpa, AFP, and TASS
17:14 18.2.2018

17:11 18.2.2018

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