Accessibility links

Breaking News
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

09:22 3.5.2018

21:55 2.5.2018

This ends our live blogging for May 2. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.

21:14 2.5.2018

19:55 2.5.2018

19:25 2.5.2018

Poroshenko to expand sanctions against Russians, paralleling U.S.:

By RFE/RL

Ukraine will expand financial and other sanctions against Russian individuals and companies, paralleling U.S. efforts to punish Moscow for its actions in Ukraine and elsewhere.

President Petro Poroshenko, who made the announcement on May 2 after a meeting with his National Security and Defense Council, did not specify whom the sanctions would target or when they would take effect.

But he said the move came in response to "the use of chemical weapons in the center of Europe, and with the conduct of illegal presidential elections on the territory of occupied Crimea."

"With today's decision, we have coordinated new sanctions that are being introduced with those that have been introduced by the United States against citizens and legal entities of the Russian Federation," he said on Twitter.

The mention of chemical weapons is a reference to Britain's conclusions that Russia was behind the nerve-agent poisoning of a Russian double agent in England in March. Moscow has denied involvement.

Russia also allowed residents of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, to vote in Russia's March presidential election, which Vladimir Putin won easily.

It wasn't immediately clear what effect the new Ukrainian measures will have. Despite tensions, Ukraine remains one of Russia's largest trading partners, though many Russian companies have already scaled back their Ukraine-linked business due to previous rounds of sanctions.

18:47 2.5.2018

18:42 2.5.2018

17:06 2.5.2018

17:05 2.5.2018

17:04 2.5.2018

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG