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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

20:16 26.11.2017

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20:22 26.11.2017

22:02 26.11.2017

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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.

08:55 27.11.2017

Good morning. As usual, we'll start the live blog today with a few of the things that caught our eye overnight:

10:01 27.11.2017

Here's an item from RFE/RL's news desk:

Ukrainian Police Detain 60 People At Gathering Of Mafia Bosses

Police in Kyiv have detained more than 60 people at an alleged gathering of organized crime bosses in the Ukrainian capital.

Authorities said the arrests were made late on November 26 during a raid by National Police and Ukrainian special forces at a restaurant in Kyiv's historic Pushcha-Vodytsia neighborhood.

A statement from Ukraine's National Police force said those gathered in Kyiv included powerful crime bosses who were able to "influence the criminal situation in Kyiv and other regions" of the country.

Andriy Krishchenko, the head of the main directorate of Kyiv's National Police, said the 60 suspects were taken to police headquarters for questioning.

"It turned out that most of them have criminal records and have served sentences for committing various types of crimes in prisons," Krishchenko said.

Krishchenko also said knives and hand guns with "suspicious licenses" were seized from suspects during the late night raid on the restaurant.

He said several of the detained suspects had dubious identification documents.

He said investigators will decide after completing their probe what charges, if any, will be filed in the case.

With reporting by UNIAN
11:44 27.11.2017

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