Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tweets: “Hang in there, Oleh. The time will come when those who organized this mock trial for you, will find themselves on the dock”
Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov and activist Oleksandr Kolchenko sing the Ukrainian anthem after hearing their sentence
Twitter users point out that Oleh Sentsov’s sentence is one year short of Anders Behring Breivik’s, the Norwegian extremist who massacred 77 people in 2011.
Russia Holds Military Exercises In Western Regions
Russian air, ground, and missile forces are conducting exercises in the western reaches of the country amid concerns that Moscow is pursuing an increasingly hostile policy toward Europe.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on August 25 that 10 regiments equipped with Yars and Topol mobile ICBM launchers were on "combat patrol routes" in the country's western and central military districts.
It did not specify how far from the borders with Ukraine and Western European countries the exercises in the western region were.
Separately, the Interfax news agency cited the military as saying artillery and helicopter exercises were taking place in the Pskov and Leningradsky regions, both of which border former Soviet Baltic republics.
Based on reporting by AP and Interfax
Local media report that a portrait of Vladimir Putin, spray-painted on a wall in Simferopol, Crimea, was defaced overnight. City workers have painted over the wall to hide the portrait completely.