19:38
22.5.2014
19:45
22.5.2014
Barring major developments, this concludes our live blogging for May 22. Follow our continuing coverage of events in Ukraine and throughout RFE/RL's broadcast area HERE.
05:51
23.5.2014
Good morning, ahead of Ukraine's election weekend, starting up the live blog for another day.
05:51
23.5.2014
06:24
23.5.2014
From our news desk:
Candidates vying to become Ukraine's next president are due to hold their final campaign rallies on May 23, one day after 17 Ukrainian soldiers were killed by pro-Russian separatists in the east.
The May 25 vote pits front-runner Petro Poroshenko, a 48-year-old confectionary magnate, against nearly 20 other challengers, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. A second round is expected June 15.
Poroshenko is pledging to resolve the unrest in the east within three months if elected.
Those promises come after the Health Ministry said 16 soldiers were killed in an ambush in the Donetsk town of Volnovakha on the morning of May 22, while the Defense Ministry said another soldier was killed near Rubizhne in Luhansk.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of trying to disrupt the vote. He called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis.
The May 25 vote pits front-runner Petro Poroshenko, a 48-year-old confectionary magnate, against nearly 20 other challengers, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. A second round is expected June 15.
Poroshenko is pledging to resolve the unrest in the east within three months if elected.
Those promises come after the Health Ministry said 16 soldiers were killed in an ambush in the Donetsk town of Volnovakha on the morning of May 22, while the Defense Ministry said another soldier was killed near Rubizhne in Luhansk.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of trying to disrupt the vote. He called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis.
08:44
23.5.2014
From our very own Glenn Kates in Dnipropetrovsk.
08:56
23.5.2014
Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov has just said that Moscow plans to pull back "100 percent" of its forces near its border with Ukraine "within a few days."
10:00
23.5.2014
Update from our news desk on Lavrov's comments:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told an international security conference in Moscow that the West sparked the current conflict in Ukraine by its "megalomania" and needed to learn the "right lesson" from the Ukraine crisis.
Lavrov said at the May 23 conference that in order to help the Ukrainian people out of the crisis, "it is necessary to…stop encouraging xenophobic and neo-Nazi sentiments."
Lavrov accused Western nations of "extending the geopolitical space under their control to the east" after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu addressed the conference and said Ukraine had "effectively slid into civil war."
Shoigu told delegates that a "hotbed of tension has been artificially created in Europe" and that "foreign values are being forced on people under the guise of democracy."
Lavrov said at the May 23 conference that in order to help the Ukrainian people out of the crisis, "it is necessary to…stop encouraging xenophobic and neo-Nazi sentiments."
Lavrov accused Western nations of "extending the geopolitical space under their control to the east" after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu addressed the conference and said Ukraine had "effectively slid into civil war."
Shoigu told delegates that a "hotbed of tension has been artificially created in Europe" and that "foreign values are being forced on people under the guise of democracy."
10:09
23.5.2014
Amid tensions in Ukraine's east, border guards in Kharkiv Oblast get some relief through entertainment, religious services, and education. Video from our Ukrainian Service.
