Accessibility links

Breaking News
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

15:51 31.8.2015

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk will address the nation at 5 p.m. local time, according to the official Twitter account of the Cabinet of Ministers.

15:54 31.8.2015

A longer update from our news desk on the clashes outside parliament:

One member of Ukraine's National Guard was killed and scores wounded during protests outside the country's parliament building in Kyiv on August 31.

The violence erupted as nationalists demonstrated outside parliament as legislators considered a presidential bill aimed at extending the level of autonomy for pro-Russian separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on guardsman died after being hit by shrapnel from a suspected hand grenade while guarding the building. Earlier, at least four "life threatening injuries" had been attributed to a suspected hand grenade thrown at the security forces as they clashed with demonstrators.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said more than 90 security officers were injured during the clashes, including one officer who lost both of his feet as a result of the blast.

A BBC correspondent described hearing three stun grenades followed by a louder explosion.

Video footage showed more than a dozen Ukrainian riot troops limping after the explosion, and at least one plainclothes officer falling to the ground and being dragged away.

Other footage showed bloodstains on the pavement and servicemen dragging away at least two other wounded security officers.

Kyiv police said a man suspected of throwing a hand grenade was been arrested, and about 30 other protesters were arrested during the clashes.

Earlier reports said security forces used batons and pepper spray against the demonstrators.

Smoke bombs also were used, but it was not immediately clear whether those devices were thrown by police or by protesters.

After the largest explosion, organizers of the protest announced that their demonstration was over, saying that "some provocateurs might have infiltrated" their ranks.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko issued a public statement later, saying that "all those involved in the provocation" outside of the parliament would be punished.

Klitschko said security cameras would allow investigators to identify "provocateurs."

The violence erupted after the parliament approved the bill introducing a draft constitutional amendment stating that a separate law would determine the extent of local self-governance in parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Of the 368 lawmakers at the August 31 session, 265 supported the bill.

The bill was submitted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in accordance with February's Minsk cease-fire agreement.

The vote took place despite a protest by dozens of lawmakers from the Radical Party and Svoboda political alliance who blocked the parliament's podium and chanted "Shame! Shame!"

At least 300 votes will be needed to pass the constitutional amendment at the next session of parliament.

15:59 31.8.2015

16:26 31.8.2015

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Hroysman has urged an immediate investigation of today’s clash next to the parliament building.

According to a statement issued by the parliamentary press office, Hroysman called today’s incident “an act of terrorism.”

“Today, when the Ukrainian Parliament made important decisions that decentralize power, that don’t allow anybody to usurp power in Ukraine, a horrible act of terrorism took place next to the parliamentary walls,” he said.

16:50 31.8.2015

Another angle on the grenade attack on the parliament, from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

Grenade Explodes Outside Ukraine Parliament
please wait

No media source currently available

0:00 0:00:41 0:00

16:53 31.8.2015

16:54 31.8.2015

The far-right Svoboda party has blamed the government for clashes next to parliament today.

“It was the government, together with the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc, that provoked Ukrainians to protest, putting constitutional amendments that solidify the special status of Donbas and [represent an act of] capitulation to the Kremlin on the agenda and voting for them,” the party wrote in a statement.

It also claimed that law-enforcement officers were first to use force against the protesters, prompting a number of clashes.

“Law enforcement failed to take appropriate measures to neutralize the provocateurs," says the statement. "Obviously, the usage of an explosive device that an unknown threw at the police was a pre-planned provocation against Ukrainian patriots.”

16:55 31.8.2015

As a result of the clashes near the parliament today, 119 people were injured, according to Olha Bohomolets, an adviser to the president.

“One person is in a critical condition awaiting emergency surgery. On Hrushevskoho street four more ambulances are on duty,” she wrote on Facebook.

17:10 31.8.2015

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called for a life sentence for the person who threw a grenade at law enforcement officers outside the Ukrainian parliament today.

“As a citizen of Ukraine I demand…life imprisonment for the person who threw a grenade, which resulted in the death of a conscripted member of the National Guard of Ukraine,” he said.

Yatsenyuk said that the cynicism of this crime lies in the fact that the “so-called pro-Ukrainian political parties” are trying to open a new front inside Ukraine.

“These political parties came not to protect the constitution, but to rape the constitution and Ukraine. They, in fact are worse than Russian bandits and terrorists in the East,” he said.

17:19 31.8.2015

WARNING GRAPHIC

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG