Here's more now from RFE/RL's news desk on the Metro Bridge incident in Kyiv:
Ukraine Police: Man Detained Who Threatened To Blow Up Bridge, Fired Shots
An elite Ukrainian police unit detained a 42-year-old man who fired shots from his car and threatened to blow up a bridge where he disrupted rail and vehicle traffic during rush hour in Kyiv on September 28.
Ukrainian media reported that the suspect, Oleksiy Belko, is a native of Foros in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and a former military serviceman.
A carbine was found but no explosives when Belko was detained on the bridge, Kyiv police chief Andriy Kryshchenko said, adding that about 300 police personnel took part in the operation.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov confirmed the suspect was apprehended at 7:32 p.m. local time.
Police at 5:00 p.m. first notified the public that an "unknown man is threatening to blow up the Metro Bridge," in reference to a key artery that links a metro line and highway across the Dnieper River.
Traffic virtually came to a halt in the area on both banks of the river.
Pictures and videos from the scene showed a police drone hovering above the bridge, snipers positioned on tower rooftops, two armored personnel carriers, numerous police officers armed with automatic rifles, and a bomb squad present.
Police qualified the incident as a preparation to carry out a terrorist act, Kryshchenko said.
Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske, Espresso, UNIAN, Interfax, and 112 News
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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 keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
U.S. says Moscow used "sham" NGOs at OSCE forum to promote Crimea claim:
By RFE/RL
The United States has accused Moscow of using "sham organizations" to promote its "spurious claim" that Ukraine's Crimea region is part of Russia during an annual human rights conference of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Russia attempted to "exploit civil-society registration procedures" at the OSCE's Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw by "flooding the zone" with "government-supported 'nongovernmental' organizations,'" the U.S. mission to the 57-member organization said in statement on September 18.
These organizations "attempted to use their speaking slots at a session on freedom of expression and the media to promote the spurious claim that Crimea was part of Russia," it said.
The move prompted the Ukrainian delegation to leave the hall in protest, while representatives of Britain, Canada, France, the United States, and the European Union "forcefully" rebutted the "false claim."
"Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine, and the United States never will recognize Russia's purported annexation of it," U.S. Ambassador James Gilmore said, adding that U.S. Crimea-related sanctions against Russia will remain in place "until Moscow returns full control over the peninsula to Ukraine."
The U.S. statement said the remarks drew applause from "legitimate" nongovernmental organizations in the hall, and the Ukrainian delegation returned for the following conference session.
Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries.
Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula and Moscow's involvement in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has prompted the EU, the United States, and other countries to impose a variety of sanctions on Russian entities and individuals.
The HDIM conference is organized by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and is taking place through September 27.