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

13:34 27.2.2018

Tweet by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.

13:56 27.2.2018

14:55 27.2.2018

15:45 27.2.2018

Police injured in brawls with protesters near parliament:

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

KYIV – Ukrainian authorities say 14 police officers have been injured in scuffles with antigovernment protesters in the capital, Kyiv.

Police said the clashes took place on February 27 after officers prevented demonstrators from setting tires on fire close to the parliament building.

They said the demonstrators then started throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the police officers.

The city police said an investigation had been launched into the "assault on law enforcement officers."

At the February 27 parliament session, lawmaker Anton Herashchenko called the clashes a "provocation" and accused the opposition New Forces Movement party of organization of the protests.

The party led by the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, denied any involvement into the demonstration.

Saakashvili was expelled from Ukraine on February 12 and is currently in the European Union.

17:05 27.2.2018

From Ukraine's deputy foreign minister at the UN Human Rights Council:

17:09 27.2.2018

17:20 27.2.2018

17:37 27.2.2018

17:42 27.2.2018

18:02 27.2.2018

Hungary summons Ukrainian ambassador over arson attack:

By RFE/RL

Hungary's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to warn against rising "extremism" after an ethnic Hungarian cultural building in western Ukraine was attacked for the second time in a month.

The headquarters of an ethnic Hungarian cultural association was set on fire overnight in Uzhhorod, capital of the Transcarpathia region, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown into the building and caused a fire that destroyed most of the ground floor, MTI said. There were no reports of injuries.

The building also suffered minor damage in an attack on February 4, when an unidentified person threw a Molotov cocktail through the window.

"Extremist political views" are gaining ground in Ukraine and intimidating ethnic Hungarians, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told public television channel M1 on February 27.

"All of this is unacceptable." Szijjarto said

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter early on February 27, "I firmly denounce yet another provocation in Uzhhorod against the Hungarian minority office."

More than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, mostly in towns and villages close to the Hungarian border.

The attacks come as Budapest and Kyiv remain at odds over an education law passed by Ukraine in September 2017 that Hungary and Romania say restricts the right of Ukraine's Hungarian and Romanian ethnic minorities to be educated in their native language.

Kyiv maintains the law is meant to ensure that all Ukrainian citizens can speak the state's official language, and it denies that the law is discriminatory.

Ukraine has also criticized Budapest's move to block cooperation between Kyiv and both the European Union and the NATO until the dispute is resolved.

Szijjarto said on February 27 that Ukraine must prove it is able to "keep extremists at bay" if it wants closer ties with NATO and the EU.

Some critics in Ukraine have accused Hungary of acting in the interest of Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin is regularly hosted in Budapest by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. (w/AFP, Interfax)

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG