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A woman carries a baby as she passes destroyed houses following what locals say was overnight shelling by Ukrainian forces in the eastern town of Slovyansk on June 9.
A woman carries a baby as she passes destroyed houses following what locals say was overnight shelling by Ukrainian forces in the eastern town of Slovyansk on June 9.

Live Blog: Crisis In Ukraine (Archive)

Summary for June 9

-- Ukraine's Foreign Ministry says that Moscow and Kyiv have reached a "mutual understanding" on key parts of a plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko for ending violence in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine.

-- Reports say up to 20 armed gunmen were trying to seize property from a factory (Topaz) that makes communications and electronic-warfare equipment in the Donetsk region.

-- A deputy foreign minister says Russia will consider any expansion of NATO forces near its borders a "demonstration of hostile intentions" and "take the necessary political and military-technological measures to support our security."

-- A two-man crew for Russian Zvezda TV arrived in Moscow after being released from detention in Ukraine.

-- Serbian officials say their own work on the Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline will have to be suspended after Bulgaria stopped construction of its portion based on EU and U.S. concerns.

-- Ukrainian security forces are reportedly still battling pro-Russian separatists in the east near Slovyansk and Donetsk.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
10:03 18.5.2014
10:13 18.5.2014
From Interfax:

Part of Crimean Tatars plan to hold an unauthorized rally commemorating the victims of the deportation of their people in 1944 near a mosque in the outskirts of Simferopol.

Hundreds of people are heading for the rally carrying flags the family emblem of the dynasty of Crimean khans, an Interfax correspondent reports.

Earlier on Sunday flowers were brought to monuments to the victims of the deportation. People came there in small groups. There were no more than 100 people at a time at the memorial near the railway station in Simferopol.
10:15 18.5.2014
10:44 18.5.2014
Ukraine's Channel 5 is reporting that four Ukrainian troops were wounded overnight during attacks carried out by separatists in Donetsk Oblast.

Channel 5 reports that four checkpoints near Slovyansk were attacked, resulting in two of the casualties.

Russian media has cited Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as writing in a Facebook post today that one separatist was killed during an overnight attack on a National Guard post near Slovyansk.

Interfax quotes Avako as writing: "War has become customary for all of us in a somewhat unnoted and routine manner. We are getting used to the laconic lines of reports. Assaults, attacks, deaths, roadblocks" ...
10:55 18.5.2014
Here is Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's Facebook post, in which he provides an update on fighting that took place in Slovyansk on the night of May 17-18.

He gives his thoughts on how war has become a "routine phenomenon in Ukraine" and asks:

"Do those who came to our camp to kill sleeping soldiers derserve indulgence? Do those who were killed by return fire tonight deserve sympathy? I have become uncivilized these days."
11:29 18.5.2014
11:35 18.5.2014
12:25 18.5.2014
Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev addressed a rally today in Kyiv marking the 70th anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation of Crimean Tatars.
"All our compatriots are confident that Crimea will be liberated from the occupiers and it will definitely again become an integral part of our great Ukraine."

Dzhemilev, who is banned by the de facto authorities in Crimea from returning to the peninsula, later spoke to reporters:
"This year the situation [of Tatars in Crimea] is almost the same as it used to be during the Soviet regime. All events related to the anniversary have been called off."
"At the moment the square in Simferopol, where traditionally all annual rallies would take place with the participation of [Ukrainian] officials and where presidential addresses would be read out to people, is surrounded by [Russian] soldiers, riot police, and pro-Russian so-called self-defense groups."
12:26 18.5.2014
12:26 18.5.2014

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