We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can catch up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
A tweet from the EU director of Human Rights Watch:
Dan McLaughlin has also been writing about the upcoming Eurovision Contest in Kyiv for the Irish Times:
Maidan square in the heart of Kiev is Ukraine’s most famous meeting place.
Countless Kiyani and visitors to their city come here to stroll, have a coffee or a cocktail and eat in the bars and restaurants that dot the streets around the square. Ukrainians also occasionally gather here to start a revolution, and twice since 2004 this has been the epicentre of historic pro-democracy protests.
Now Maidan and Kiev await more than 20,000 visitors for Eurovision, and a chance for Ukraine to show not only its beauty and hospitality, but how it is overcoming huge obstacles to transform itself and move closer to the West.
Fan zones are springing up around Kiev, and rehearsals for the May 9th-13th song contest are in full swing on a spectacular, high-tech stage. The road running through Maidan has already been taken over by the Eurovision village, where DJs will perform and big screens will broadcast the contest.
Portraits of Ukrainian soldiers at Kiev’s “Art Fort”, which is next to the city’s main military hospital and is hosting one of many exhibitions to be held during Eurovision.
Portraits of Ukrainian soldiers at Kiev’s “Art Fort”, which is next to the city’s main military hospital and is hosting one of many exhibitions to be held during Eurovision.
Organisers have a budget of some €27 million but Kiev needs no adornment in springtime, as pink and white cherry blossom and flowering chestnuts banish memories of the long winter, and sunshine bathes a skyline of golden domes and bell towers beside the Dnieper river.
Ukraine hopes the venue and host city will dazzle visitors, more than 200 million expected television viewers worldwide and millions more watching online, but one neighbour has cast a shadow over the contest: Russia.
Read the entire article here