BREAKING! UN maritime tribunal rules that Russia must release seized Ukrainian naval vessels, free 24 detained sailors.
More to follow.
In Ukraine, Poroshenko's Bloc Rebrands Itself Ahead Of Parliamentary Elections
By Current Time
The political party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has changed its name in a bid to rebrand itself ahead of key parliamentary elections.
The Petro Poroshenko Bloc was renamed to European Solidarity at a party congress on May 24.
“The key to unity and victory is a renewed party and renewed leadership,” Poroshenko told the gathering in Kyiv.
When Ukraine will hold its next parliamentary elections is unclear.
The new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced at his inauguration on May 20 that he would dissolve parliament and call snap elections in July.
He has also called for that election to be held based entirely on voting for parties, rather than single candidates, arguing that the current system in which some seats are filled in contests between individual candidates favors corruption.
But at an emergency session of the Verkhovna Rada on May 22, only 92 lawmakers voted to discuss that proposal -- far short of the majority, 226 votes, needed to put it on the agenda.
The next parliamentary elections had been set for late October.
As he starts his term, early elections are a chance for Zelenskiy to strengthen his position and sideline allies of Poroshenko.
Zelenskiy, 41, defeated Poroshenko by a wide margin in a presidential runoff vote on April 21. Ukrainians largely faulted Poroshenko for failing to tackle corruption and lower living standards.
UN Tribunal To Issue Ruling On Ukrainian Ships Seized By Russia
By RFE/RL
A United Nations tribunal is set to issue a ruling in the dispute over Russia's detention of two dozen Ukrainian sailors and the seizure of three Ukrainian ships near Crimea last year.
The May 25 ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is unlikely to definitively end the question of allowing Ukrainian ships full access to the Sea of Azov, which Russia has been restricting since a bridge across the Kerch Strait was completed.
But Ukraine is hoping a victory will provide legal weight in its fight against Russia, which has boycotted the proceedings, saying the court has no jurisdiction.
Russia seized the ships in November near the Kerch Strait bridge, which connects the Russian mainland to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
Ukraine has denied Russia's charge that the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters illegally.
The European Union, NATO, and other international bodies have called on Moscow to release the ships and the detained sailors.
After Two Years, Journalist Stanislav Aseyev Remains Captive In Donbas
In the spring of 2017, RFE/RL contributor Stanislav Aseyev was allegedly abducted by Russia-backed separatists while reporting from the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. Two years later, he is still being held. His only opportunity to communicate with the outside world was when he appeared in handcuffs on Russian state-run TV and said he had been accused of espionage.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for May 24, 2019. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.