Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with this item, which was filed by RFE/RL's news desk overnight:
European Watchdog Criticizes Ukraine For Banning Russia's RIA Novosti
A European media watchdog has criticized Ukraine for putting Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on a sanctions list that bars the news outlet from operating in Ukraine.
Harlem Desir, the media freedom representative for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said late on May 25 that foreign media outlets and representatives "should not be included on sanctions lists."
“Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are fundamental commitments of the OSCE participating states. Any limitations imposed on these rights should be limited in scope, proportional, and provide for adequate safeguards against abuse,” Désir said in a statement.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cited "national security" reasons for putting RIA Novosti Ukraine and its parent company, Rossia Segodnya, on the sanctions list on May 24. They are barred from operating in Ukraine for three years.
Russia accused Ukraine of "political censorship" of the media and called on the OSCE to censure the move.
Desir in his statement called on Ukraine to "respect and fulfill the OSCE commitments aimed at improving conditions under which journalists...practice their profession."
Desir noted that the OSCE has called out Ukraine previously for restricting media, once in September 2015 when Kyiv barred several dozen foreign journalists from entering the country, and another time in August 2014, when Ukraine's parliament approved restrictions on media in its sanctions law.
Ukraine also recently jailed an RIA Novosti reporter on charges of high treason for allegedly participating in "hybrid information warfare," in a case that drew angry criticism from Moscow and concern from Western governments and media watchdogs.
Ukraine has been locked in a conflict with Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country since 2014, the same year that Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.
More than 10,300 people have been killed in the conflict.
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.
Here's another item from RFE/RL's news desk:
'We Want The Truth': Parents Of MH17 Victim Seek Justice, 'Chain Of Command'
The Australian parents of a man killed when Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 say they want the truth to come out but stress that they blame the Russian leadership and not the people for the tragedy.
"I think we may never hear the Russian government say, 'Yes, we were responsible,'" Jon O’Brien, the father of 25-year-old Jack, who was killed when the passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine, said in an interview on May 25 with Current Time TV, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
"We want the truth to come out, but we direct that to the Kremlin and the Russian leaders and not against the Russian people," said the victim's mother, Meryn O’Brien.
The comments come a day after a Dutch-led international criminal investigation concluded that the Buk missile that shot down the flight over the conflict zone in Ukraine's Donetsk region on July 17, 2014, came from Russia's 53rd Antiaircraft Missile Brigade.
MH17 was flying between the Netherlands and Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down, killing all 298 people on board.
The Joint Investigative Team (JIT), comprising authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, made the announcement at a press conference in Utrecht.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a business forum in St. Petersburg, denied Moscow was responsible for the downing, saying the Ukrainian military could have been culpable.
Putin added that Moscow would not trust the investigation's findings because Russia has been excluded from the investigative team.
"We aren't taking part in it, and our arguments haven't been accepted by the investigative commission," he said.
'More Than Enough Evidence'
But Jon O’Brien insisted that "there is already more than enough evidence for anyone who is looking at it dispassionately to say, 'No, the weight of evidence is there.'"
"But if people have decided not to believe it, then nothing will convince them," he added.
Meryn O’Brien added that "our interest is not just in the people who fired the missile, but the chain of command…Why did that situation come about in the first place?”
"But it's important for us that the rest of the world knows the truth…That’s really important."
"We wonder what we will see in our lifetime in terms of justice," she added.
She said the next step would be when actual people are charged for the downing of the plane and a prosecution is brought to a court in the Netherlands, "whether the people are there or not."
On the same day as the JIT conclusion was announced, Russia’s Novaya Gazeta published an "Open Letter To The Russian People From The Families Of The Victims," written by the O'Briens and addressing the loss of all those aboard the flight..
The couple said the publication of the letter had not been timed to coincide with the JIT report but to the upcoming opening of the World Cup soccer tournament.
They said the pain of the loss of their son was intensified by the father and son's love of soccer and the fact that the tournament will be held in Russia starting on June 14.