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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

10:11 24.3.2018

21:39 23.3.2018

We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.

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Here's an item on Savchenko from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Kyiv Court Orders Two-Month Pretrial Detention For Savchenko

Nadia Savchenko (left) in court in Kyiv on March 23.
Nadia Savchenko (left) in court in Kyiv on March 23.

A Ukrainian court has authorized the detention in pretrial custody of Ukrainian lawmaker Nadia Savchenko, a celebrated former military pilot accused of plotting a terrorist attack on parliament with grenades and automatic weapons.

The Shevchenko District Court on March 23 ordered that Savchenko be held for two months pending an official investigation into the case.

Savchenko told the court she was innocent, the charges against her were politically motivated, and her detainment on March 22 at Ukraine’s parliament was “illegal.”

She also announced that she was starting a hunger strike.

The court’s ruling to keep Savchenko in custody until May 23 came a day after fellow lawmakers voted to strip her of her immunity from prosecution and authorized her arrest.

Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko has accused Savchenko and alleged accomplice Volodymyr Ruban of plotting to overthrow the government, carry out a "large-scale terrorist attack" in central Kyiv, and kill senior officials.

Ruban was detained earlier in March while crossing into government-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, allegedly with large amounts of weapons and ammunition hidden in a shipment of furniture.

Savchenko said at the hearing on March 23 that "the weapons were being transported from the enemy" -- a reference to Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of two eastern provinces -- in order "to [forensically] study them."

Prosecutor Oleksandr Bannyk, who called for Savchenko to be remanded in custody for the two-month pretrial detention period, said she could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty.

The ruling marks a dramatic new turn for the former military aviator.

For a time, Savchenko was seen in Ukraine as a hero in a war that has killed more than 10,300 people since Russia fomented unrest and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine -- moves that followed pro-European protests that drove Ukraine's Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014.

Savchenko says she was abducted in the combat zone later that year and taken to Russia. She spent two years in prison there -- stretches of which she spent on hunger strikes -- before being released and returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner swap in May 2016.

Elected to parliament on an opposition party ticket while still held in Russia, Savchenko became a vehement critic of President Petro Poroshenko's government after her return.

She swiftly drew criticism from several political camps.

She has faced criticism for holding talks with the Russia-backed separatists without consent from the government in Kyiv.

She's also been criticized for comments which, Ukrainian nationalists claim, indicate she advocates accepting Moscow's seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

With reporting by Merhat Sharipzhan and AP
18:54 23.3.2018

18:53 23.3.2018

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