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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

13:00 2.5.2018

One take on that NYT article:

12:52 2.5.2018

11:49 2.5.2018

11:43 2.5.2018

Hmm, if true, that's a lot of elderly people in or around a war zone:

11:40 2.5.2018

11:30 2.5.2018

11:27 2.5.2018

Not sure what the Windrush guy is doing there...

10:37 2.5.2018

Security Beefed Up In Odesa On Anniversary Of Deadly Clash

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

ODESA, Ukraine -- Security has been beefed up in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa as ceremonies are under way to commemorate 48 people killed in a 2014 clash between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian demonstrators.

More than 1,000 police and security officers were deployed on May 2 near Kulikovo field and the Trade Unions building, where the deadly clashes took place four years ago.

The Odesa regional police department said that people can reach the area only after passing through metal detectors.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that communist and Nazi symbols are prohibited at the commemoration events.

Since 2014, pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists have come to the site on May 2 to commemorate the victims. Fighting has broken out at times.

The regional police said that 2,500 police and National Guard troops were patrolling the streets of Odesa.

Four years ago, on the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, pro-Russian activists and their opponents marched in Odesa.

The marches led to clashes between the opposing sides and gunfire that killed several people in the city center.

Then the clashes moved to the Kulikovo field and ended with a fire at a trade union building where supporters of autonomy for Ukraine's east took shelter from government backers.

It is unclear how the fire started. Government supporters threw firebombs at the building, but official accounts say those inside the building may have caused the fire by throwing firebombs at their opponents from the roof.

Forty-two people died in the building.

09:46 2.5.2018

20:52 1.5.2018

This ends our live blogging for May 1. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.

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