Accessibility links

Breaking News
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

15:41 26.1.2018

More from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, saying the fight against corruption is one of his administration's priorities:

15:47 26.1.2018

15:49 26.1.2018

15:49 26.1.2018

16:11 26.1.2018

Here's more on Mikheil Saakashvili from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Kyiv Court Of Appeals Places Saakashvili Under 'Night' House Arrest

Mikheil Saakashvili at a court hearing in Kyiv earlier this week.
Mikheil Saakashvili at a court hearing in Kyiv earlier this week.

KYIV -- Protesters have disrupted a crowded Kyiv courtroom as it imposed a curfew on Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili by placing him under house arrest every night from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Cries of "Shame! Shame!" rang out during the pronouncement of the ruling by the Kyiv City Court of Appeals on January 26, which came after the Prosecutor-General's appeal against the Pechera District Court's refusal to place the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region under house arrest in December.

"This is not a court! These are corrupt beasts!" Saakashvili shouted as the ruling was read out, walking toward the judges and pointing his finger at them. "What they have just declared is an attempt to restrain my political activity!"

Ukrainian authorities have accused Saakashvili of abetting an alleged "criminal group" led by former President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after his ouster in February 2014.

They also claim that protests led by Saakashvili in Ukraine are part of a Russian plot against the government in Kyiv.

Saakashvili, who has strongly denied all the charges, said in the court that, while the ruling keeps him from visiting other regions of the country, antigovernment protests and marches should continue.

“We will continue marching,” he said to cheers from his supporters inside the court.

Ukrainian police on December 5 attempted to arrest Saakashvili, but his supporters surrounded the police van where he had been kept and managed to set him free.

He was again detained three days later, but a judge on December 11 turned down a request by prosecutors to place him under house arrest.

Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 when he accepted Ukrainian citizenship and took the post of Odesa governor.

He resigned that position in November 2016, complaining of rampant corruption, and has since become an ardent opponent of Poroshenko.

In an interview with Current Time TV, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, Saakashvili said on December 12 that corruption inflicted far greater damage on Ukraine than Russia had.

Saakashvili also faces government anger in Georgia. On January 5, the Tbilisi City Court found him guilty of abuse of power by allegedly trying to cover up evidence about a 2006 murder case and sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison.

He has also denied those charges and said they were politically motivated as well.

16:31 26.1.2018

Another clip from Poroshenko at Davos, this time he's talking about Nord Stream 2:

16:32 26.1.2018

16:33 26.1.2018

16:51 26.1.2018

Another news item, this time from the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:

Russian Authorities Arrest And Fine Crimean Tatars

Two Crimean Tatars from the Russia-annexed Crimea region have been found guilty of extremist propaganda.

Enver Krosh, from the northern city of Dzhankoy was sentenced to 10 days in jail, while Ebazer Islyamov, from the peninsula's northwestern Nyzhnyohirskyy District, was fined 2,000 rubles ($35), after their homes were raided by police on January 25.

Police seized a mobile phone, laptop, and a tablet from Krosh's home, according to local human rights group Crimean Solidarity.

Krosh's case was taken to the Dzhankoy District Court and Islyamov's to the Nyzhnyohirskyy District Court, where an ambulance was called after he felt unwell.

Both Krosh and Islyamov are practicing Muslims.

Rights groups and Western governments have repeatedly denounced what they called a persistent campaign targeting Crimea's indigenous people -- the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars, the majority of whom opposed Moscow's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014.

19:35 26.1.2018

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG