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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

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Hundreds of Saakashvili supporters rally in central Kyiv:

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

Supporters of the Movement of New Forces, the political party led by Mikheil Saakashvili, are demonstrating in central Kyiv on November 12 to call for reforms.

Several hundred people gathered on Mikhailov Square on November 12, some of them holding Ukrainian flags and red-and-black and party banners.

They are planning to march toward a tent camp that was set up by protesters outside the parliament building.

Police said law enforcers will accompany the demonstrators to "prevent provocations and violations of the law and order."

Protesters set up tents outside the Verkhovna Rada building on October 17, calling for the cancellation of parliamentarian immunity, the creation of an anticorruption court, amendments to election laws, and legislation on impeachment of the president.

At least 10 people were arrested after police used tear gas against demonstrators on October 18.

On October 19, the protesters notched a small victory as parliament sent a bill on lifting lawmakers' immunity from prosecution to the Constitutional Court for review.

And President Petro Poroshenko vowed on October 20 to push for legislation creating an anticorruption court by the end of the year.

The protests were initially called by Saakashvili, a onetime ally of Poroshenko, but many of Ukraine's opposition political leaders have also joined the protests.

In 2015, Saakashvili was appointed by Poroshenko to be governor of the Odesa region and surrendered his Georgian citizenship in order to take the post.

However, Saakashvili resigned in November 2016, saying that his reform efforts had been blocked by Poroshenko's allies.

The former Georgian president was then stripped of Ukrainian citizenship by Poroshenko in June 2017 in a move he is currently challenging in court.

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