EU sanctions against Yanukovych prolonged:
By Rikard Jozwiak
BRUSSELS -- EU ministers have prolonged sanctions against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and 12 of his associates by another year, but lifted restrictive measures against former Justice Minister Olena Lukash and businessman Serhiy Klyuyev.
The pair was removed from the sanctions list after EU officials decided that there wasn't enough evidence against them.
Lukash served as justice minister for less than a year.
Serhiy Klyuyev, a businessman and lawmaker from Yanukovych's Party of Regions, was the nominal owner of Mezhyhirya, the lavish Yanukovych residence outside Kyiv which is now a museum.
The EU imposed asset freezes against Yanukovych and his inner circle shortly after the collapse of his government in February 2014. The bloc accused Yanukovych and his collaborators of misappropriation of Ukraine's state funds.
Apart from the former president, the list includes his son, Oleksandr Yanukovych, former Prime Ministers Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov, and Serhiy Klyuyev's brother Andriy Klyuyev, who was Yanukovych's chief of staff.
Several people who are on the EU sanctions list have appealed their inclusion over the past couple of years at the European Court of Justice. A ruling on Andriy Klyuyev's appeal is expected to be reached later this year.
EU diplomats who are not authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL that more names might be withdrawn from the list next year unless Kyiv provides additional evidence against them.
New cease-fire "violated almost immediately":
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
KYIV -- The Ukrainian military has accused Russia-backed separatists in the eastern region known as the Donbas of violating a new cease-fire agreement shortly after it went into force.
The cease-fire, agreed by in talks including representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, took effect on March 5 just after midnight.
But Kyiv's headquarters for military operations in the east said that the separatists targeted government positions near the city of Shchastsya in the Luhansk region with grenade launchers, mortars, and other weapons at about 1 a.m.
It said that those attacks lasted about an hour and a half, and that separatists fired at another government position around daybreak.
The Ukrainian military said that its forces did not return fire.
The conflict in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions has killed more than 10,300 people since it erupted in April 2014, after Russia fomented unrest across much of Ukraine following the ouster of Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych.
It has persisted despite the Minsk accords, Western-backed cease-fire and peace deals signed in September 2014 and February 2015, and several additional agreements to cease hostilities. (w/TASS)