Also in other news (filed by overnight by our Washington bureau):
Russia Under Fire At UN Over Downing Of MH17
Russia has rejected calls at the United Nations to accept responsibility for the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine after an investigation found that a Russian Army missile caused the explosion that killed all 298 people on board.
At a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine late on May 29, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok called on Moscow to accept the findings of a Dutch-led investigative team that the airliner was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile provided by Russia's 53rd Antiaircraft Missile Brigade based in the city of Kursk.
"The language of ultimatums is not something that anyone will be allowed to use when speaking to Russia," Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya responded.
"We cannot accept the unfounded conclusion of the JIT," he said, referring to the Dutch-led Joint investigation Team.
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on a visit to Minsk on May 29 also rejected what he called "ultimatums" from the Netherlands and Australia over compensation for relatives of people killed in the incident.
All of the passengers and crew -- mostly Malaysians, Dutch, and Australians -- were killed when the missile slammed into the Malaysian Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur as it flew over territory held by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
Russia has claimed that the investigation led by the Dutch government, working in cooperation with the Australian, Ukrainian, and Malaysian governments, was not legitimate because Russia was not included as an equal partner in the investigation.
'Transparent Denials'
Moscow claims that the JIT ignored evidence provided by Russia and, for that reason, it has refused to cooperate with the investigation.
"We are outraged by this terrible incident," Nebenzya said. "We insist on holding a trustworthy investigation. The true culprits should be determined on the basis of factual evidence and brought to justice."
But the Dutch foreign minister, responding to Nebenzya, pointed out that Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an independent investigation of the incident.
It is "very disappointing" that Russia won't acknowledge the "irrefutable evidence," Blok said. "So far, Russian authorities don't show the slightest interest in achieving truth, justice, and accountability."
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley voiced strong support for the Dutch and Australian demands that Russia acknowledge its role in the tragedy and help bring to justice those responsible for the shooting down of the plane.
Haley said Moscow's denials are linked to its refusal to acknowledge Russia's involvement in the Ukrainian conflict by providing weapons such as Buk missiles to Ukrainian separatists.
"Despite its transparent denials, there is no doubt Russia is driving the Ukrainian conflict," said Haley.
More than 10,300 people have been killed since the conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the council that Russia's rejection of the findings "did not surprise me at all."
"We have no doubt that the downing of MH17 flight is a terrorist act," he said.
Ukraine will present documents to the International Court of Justice next month showing that Russia was violating antiterrorism agreements, he added.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz renewed his call for a peacekeeping mission to be deployed to east Ukraine and urged Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a UN special envoy for Ukraine.
Diplomats said Russia, a veto-wielding power at the council, has blocked attempts to step up UN involvement in efforts to end the conflict.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS
In other news, this was filed by our Washington bureau overnight:
Saakashvili, Claiming His Rights Violated, Calls For Sanctions On Poroshenko
Exiled politician Mikheil Saakashvili is calling on European nations to impose sanctions on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his inner circle for allegedly violating his human rights.
Saakashvili on May 29 charged that Poroshenko, a former political ally who made him governor of Odesa before they parted ways over allegations of corruption in the government, breached international law by stripping him of his Ukrainian citizenship and kicking him out of the country in February.
Speaking in the Netherlands, where he has been residing along with his Dutch wife and two sons, Saakashvili said sanctions should be used not only to push Poroshenko to restore his Ukrainian citizenship, but to target assets that he alleged Ukraine's leaders have obtained illegally.
"We are looking for their assets across Europe to impound them, because they were stolen from the Ukrainian people," Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili's British lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said he cannot take his case to European courts until he has exhausted his options in Ukraine's slow-moving judicial system.
From 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was president of Georgia, where he faces abuse of power charges that he strongly denies. After leaving Georgia, Poroshenko took him in as an ally, but Saakashvili resigned his Odesa governorship, charging that Poroshenko had failed to stem corruption in the government.
Last year, Saakashvili lead antigovernment, anticorruption street protests before he was forced to leave the country.
Saakashvili was detained at a restaurant in Kyiv by armed, masked men and deported to Poland. Robertson said Saakashvili would like to return to Ukraine to lead his political party in next year's presidential election.
"I don't have personal ambitions," Saakashvili said. "But I have ambition to help Ukrainian democracy, to help Ukraine in the corruption fight."
Based on reporting by AP and AFP
Good morning. Needless to say, the killing of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko dominated out Twitter-feed last night:
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.
From our news desk:
Russian Journalist, Kremlin Critic Who Fled To Ukraine Shot Dead In Kyiv
KYIV -- Police in Kyiv say a Russian journalist who fled to Ukraine after what he called "political harassment" in Russia has been shot dead at his Kyiv home by an unknown assailant
In a politically charged social media post, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman publicly linked Russia to the killing of 41-year-old Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko, who died on May 29 from gunshot wounds in his back.
But in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee distanced the Kremlin from the killing -- saying it had launched its own criminal investigation into Babchenko’s death.
"The Russian Investigative Committee is not going to ignore brutal crimes against Russian citizens," committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement to "demand the Ukrainian authorities do everything in their power for an immediate investigation," adding that Moscow hopes "the relevant international agencies and nongovernmental organizations will take the investigation process under their control."
Kyiv police spokeswoman Oksana Blyschyk said police received an emergency call on May 29 from doctors who said a woman called them to say she had "found her husband at home in a pool of blood."
Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Anton Heraschenko, who is also an aide to Ukraine's interior minister, said Babchenko had just returned home from a nearby grocery store and was opening his apartment door when an assailant waiting in the stairwell shot him multiple times in the back.
"Arkady's heart stopped in the ambulance on the way to the hospital" in Kyiv, Heraschenko said in a Facebook post.
Meanwhile, in an indication that at least one witness saw the assailant, police in Kyiv late on May 29 released a sketch of a chief suspect.
Babchenko was well-known for his criticism of the Kremlin.
His reporting about Russia’s support for pro-Russia separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine saw him become the target of severe criticism from Russian state media and from Russian officials.
ALSO READ: RFE/RL Interview With Arkady Babchenko (in Russian)
But Babchenko told RFE/RL in December 2016 that "all of the elements" of Russia’s state "propaganda machine" were engaged against him after he posted comments to Facebook about the crash of a Russian military plane in the Black Sea.
All 92 people on board were killed, including members of the Russian Army’s renowned choir, the Aleksandrov Ensemble who were traveling to give a performance for Russian troops in Syria.
Babchenko said the reaction by state officials and state media to his remarks was intended to send a signal to Russian society that "we must be in one line; we must express sadness; we must appear sad -- and anyone who doesn’t must be destroyed."
'Forced To Flee'
Babchenko told RFE/RL in late 2016 that State Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov, Federation Council member Frants Klintsevich, and Russia media like Channel One and Lifenews were "stitching together some fake news" about him.
Babchenko said: "A major effort is being organized. They aren’t investigating why the plane crashed but instead are persecuting me."
In February 2017, writing for Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, Babchenko said: "I can tell you what political harassment feels like in [President Vladimir] Putin’s Russia. Like many dissidents I am used to abuse, but a recent campaign against me was so personal, so scary, that I was forced to flee."
WATCH: Arkady Babchenko Speaks To RFE/RL About Leaving Russia And Living Abroad (in Russian, no subtitles)
Babchenko served in the Russia Army during the first separatist war in Chechnya in the 1990s before he became a journalist.
He worked as a military correspondent and wrote for several Russian media organizations, including the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily newspaper and Novaya Gazeta, as well as TV Tsentr, and Channel One TV.
He had been scathingly critical of the Kremlin in recent years. He moved to Kyiv in the autumn of 2017 where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station, ATR.
WATCH: Arkady Babchenko Tells RFE/RL What He Expects From Vladimir Putin's Fourth Term As President (in Russian, no subtitles)
Babchenko is the second high-profile Russian journalist to be murdered in Kyiv in less than two years.
Authorities in Ukraine are still investigating the killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet in a car-bomb blast in central Kyiv in July 2016.
Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian citizen who made Kyiv his permanent home, was well known as a hard-hitting reporter and commentator who had worked at prominent media outlets in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine during his decades-long career.
Often critical of political leaders, he had received threats and been harassed on several occasions.