The parents of Jamala, the winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, say their daughter's victory has unified Crimean Tatars. The Ukrainian performer won the competition with her song 1944, about the deportation of 240,000 Crimean Tatars by Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Jamala's father said old ladies had been praying for his daughter to win. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine Commemorates Crimean Tatars' Deportation
By RFE/RL
KYIV -- Ukraine is commemorating on May 18 the victims of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's mass deportation of Tatars from Crimea in 1944.
A minute of silence was observed across the country at noon -- except in Crimea, where Russia-backed authorities have banned annual commemorations of the deportation after Moscow illegally annexed the peninsula in March 2014.
"On this important day, as always, we stand together with our brotherly Crimean Tatar people, share our common pain, and bow our heads to commemorate the victims," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.
In November 2015, the Ukrainian parliament approved the bill recognizing May 18 as the Day of Commemoration of Victims of the Crimean Tatars' Genocide.
In Crimea's capital, Simferopol, unknown individuals splashed purple paint on Stalin's commemoration plaque on May 18.
Starting on May 18, 1944, some 200,000 Crimean Tatars were put on trains -- most of them in the space of just two days -- and sent to Central Asia. Thousands are believed to have died during the journey.
U.S. Diplomat In Moscow For Ukraine Talks
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has discussed the implementation of the Minsk cease-fire agreement for eastern Ukraine with Russian officials.
"We want to see Minsk implemented as soon as possible, and we think that it is now time to really step on the gas and see this implemented," Nuland told reporters in Moscow on May 18 after talks with Russian presidential adviser Vladislav Surkov.
"As our president has said, if and when Minsk is fully implemented, sanctions can be rolled back," she added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the talks as a "brief exchange of opinions."
Nuland said she also met with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
The Minsk deal signed in February 2015 has helped reduce fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, but sporadic clashes have continued.
The conflict has killed more than 9,300 people since April 2014.