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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

15:36 5.5.2018

14:57 5.5.2018

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14:23 5.5.2018

Still quite a few people upset about this:

12:38 5.5.2018

12:37 5.5.2018

12:36 5.5.2018

10:38 5.5.2018

Here's another news item, this time from the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Crimean Activist Gets Prison For Pro-Ukraine Social Media Posts

Ihor Movenko was found guilty of extremism after making pro-Ukrainian comments on social media. (file photo)
Ihor Movenko was found guilty of extremism after making pro-Ukrainian comments on social media. (file photo)

A Crimean activist has been sentenced to two years in prison over pro-Ukrainian comments made on social media, a ruling that activists say is unprecedented.

Ihor Movenko was found guilty of extremism by the Russia-controlled court in Sevastopol on May 4.

The charges stem from comments Movenko posted in the "Crimea is Ukraine" group on the social network VKontakte in 2016.

“If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time someone has been imprisoned for comments made on social media,” said Darya Sviridova of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

"Obviously, a Ukrainian citizen is being persecuted for taking a pro-Ukrainian position on occupied territory," Sviridova added.

A lawyer for Movenko, Oksana Zheleznyak, said the ruling would be appealed.

Movenko was beaten in Sevastopol in September 2016 while riding a bicycle that displayed a sticker with the symbol of the far-right Azoz battalion.

Movenko suffered serious injuries in the attack, but police never investigated the incident.

Following the assault, Movenko was detained in December 2016 by Russia-installed security authorities in Crimea and charged with extremism on social media.

Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, the human rights situation has reportedly deteriorated on the Ukrainian Peninsula.

Human Rights Watch has called Crimea a "black hole" for human rights.

09:55 5.5.2018

Here's what seems to be a photo of the town council brawl in Nikopol, which we reported on yesterday:

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