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An activist stops a lorry near the village of Chongar, in the Kherson region adjacent to Crimea.
An activist stops a lorry near the village of Chongar, in the Kherson region adjacent to Crimea.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (ARCHIVE)

Follow all of the latest developments as they happen.

Final Summary For September 21

-- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Russia to withdraw heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine.

-- No trucks have passed through the administrative border from mainland Ukraine to Crimea overnight, according to Oleh Slobodyan, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Service.

-- Hundreds of pro-Kyiv activists from Crimea's Tatar community and other opposition activists are taking part in the blockade of roads from Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula to protest Russia's annexation of the region last year.

-- The German government has criticized Russia for not distancing itself from plans by Russian-backed separatists to hold local elections in eastern Ukraine without consulting Kyiv.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv

13:53 21.9.2015

President Petro Poroshenko meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Lviv.

13:53 21.9.2015

13:34 21.9.2015

RFE/RL Crimean desk correspondent Tetyana Bezruk shared a photo of the Right Sector base at the Chonhar checkpoint on the administrative border with Crimea.

13:16 21.9.2015

13:16 21.9.2015

Twitter user @aliona_ka posted a photo of a deck of cards titled #KrymNash (Russian transliteration for “Crimea is ours).

Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured with a crown on his head is an ace. His spokesman Dmitry Peskov, head of Russia Today media holding Dmitry Kiselyov and Night Wolves leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov are eights. Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and nationalist deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky are pictured as jokers in the deck of cards.

13:03 21.9.2015

12:45 21.9.2015

12:34 21.9.2015

A Kherson entrepreneur left dozens of tons of potatoes for activists blocking the administrative border between mainland Ukraine and Crimea.

“A true example of the patriotism of this campaign," said Henichesk District Administration Head Oleksandr Vorobyov to RFE/RL's Crimean desk correspondent. "The cargo owner understood the situation, didn’t make any complaints and left the goods to the participants of the blockade. We don’t even know the name of this entrepreneur, but we thank him.”

Now the activists are dividing about 40 tons of potatoes among the three checkpoints that are under blockade.

12:04 21.9.2015

Chairman of the Mejlis Refat Chubarov was filmed talking to truck drivers as they tried to negotiate their passage through the blockade.

Smoking a cigarette at a table, surrounded by drivers, Chubarov explains that it is not only Crimean Tatars who are blocking the border, as there are many activists from different Ukrainian cities, he said.

“If you want, let them join the conversation," he says."Don’t pressure me to pity you, because I am a Crimean Tatar. It’s just that I know more about my own grief. I can say something else to you. Look, guys, Oleh Sentsov -- 20 years in prison! How much money does that cost?”

10:34 21.9.2015

More on Seibert's comments:

The German government has criticized Russia for not distancing itself from plans by Russian-backed separatists to hold local elections in eastern Ukraine without consulting Kyiv.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on September 21 that it "is regrettable that Russia so far has not distanced itself from these plans."

The German Foreign Ministry said the same day that "we expect Moscow to use its influence so that the separatists cancel these elections."

The statements came after Igor Plotnitsky, a self-styled leader of the areas under separatist control in Ukraine's Luhansk region, said local elections in those areas would be held on November 1.

The ministry said it views plans to hold the elections "with great concern" and added that they would be a serious violation of the Minsk peace agreement signed in February.

Ukrainian leaders and other Western countries have also criticized the plans by rebel representatives in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to hold elections.

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