From RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels:
The European Union has extended sanctions against dozens of individuals and entities over Russia's annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
The EU member states' ambassadors to the bloc agreed on March 13 to prolong the sanctions against 150 individuals and 37 entities that, according to Brussels, are responsible for actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry:
Here's a new item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Kyiv Court Hears Nasirov's Appeal Against Pretrial Detention
KYIV -- A Kyiv court is reviewing an appeal by Roman Nasirov, Ukraine's suspended tax and customs service chief, against a ruling placing him in pretrial detention on embezzlement charges.
In a rare attempt to prosecute a high-level official in Ukraine over allegations of corruption, Nasirov is being investigated on suspicion of defrauding the state of 2 billion hryvnias ($74 million).
He was suspended from his post on March 3, and a district court in the capital on March 7 ordered him placed in pretrial detention for two months.
The court ruled that he could be granted house arrest if he pays $3.7 million bail, a record high for Ukraine.
Dozens of demonstrators who want to ensure Nasirov does not avoid trial rallied outside the appeals court building as the hearing progressed, chanting "Nasirov Belongs Behind Bars!"
The National Anticorruption Bureau says that Nasirov signed off on grace periods for a number of taxpayers, including companies linked to a former lawmaker who fled abroad last year while facing a corruption investigation.
President Petro Poroshenko's government is under pressure from Ukrainians and the West to fight deep-seated corruption, which observers say hurts the country's chances of throwing off influence from Russia, which seized the Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and backs separatists in a deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine.