During a board meeting of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) today, the deputy head of a regional branch of the Department of Counterintelligence was arrested on corruption charges.
"The colonel arrived to the meeting one hour after receiving another documented bribe," SBU officials said about the arrest. According to a video of the arrest, released by security officials, the colonel didn't deny the charge.
Estonian journalist Andrei Babin, one of the individuals Ukraine sanctioned yesterday, was surprised to learn he was on the list.
"I was disappointed. I am not an enemy of Ukraine as a state, of Ukrainian people. I have been to Ukraine multiple times, my relatives live there. I love Ukraine very much. I associate it with the warmest feeling, with blue skies, yellow fields, hospitality of the people," he told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
When asked why he thinks he was sanctioned, Babin said that in July last year he wrote an article titled I Keep My Fingers Crossed For You, Novorossia.
"I understand that the title is provocative. The article itself is very emotional, which is unusual for me, a calm, peace-loving person as everybody knows me. There, I admit, I overstepped some boundary," he added.
The Ukrainian Security Council has "pardoned" six journalists from its new list of sanctioned individuals. The three BBC journalists mentioned there before, are no longer listed.
All in all, 41 journalists and bloggers were on Ukraine’s new sanctions list.
Names of British, German and Spanish journalists were taken off the sanctions list, tweeted Ukrainian President’s spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko.