From our Brussels correspondent:
The names of the 13 individuals and 5 entities that the EU added on its sanctions list was published on Saturday.
The five entities are all public organizations active in the separatist-held Donetsk and Luhansk regions and presented candidates in the so-called elections held on 2 November. The five are “the Donetsk Republic”, “Peace to Luhansk Region”, “Free Donbas”, “the People's Union,” and “the Luhansk Economic Union”.
The 13 individuals include ministers and officials in the so-called People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, including the defense minister of the Luhansk People's Republic Oleg Bugrov and its education minister Lesya Lapteva. Ravil Khalikov, the first deputy prime minister in the Donetsk People's Republic is also listed as is its education minister Ihor Kostenok.
The EU has so far imposed visa bans and asset freezes on 132 people and 28 entities.
That concludes our live blogging for Friday, November 28.
Via AFP:
Six more coffins carrying body parts of victims from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands from Ukraine on Friday, with nine victims of the July disaster still unidentified.
A Dutch Air Force C-130 transport plane arrived at an airfield in the southern city of Eindhoven after leaving Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
The coffins were loaded into six hearses at a ceremony attended by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, before heading for a forensic research facility in Hilversum where the process of identifying the victims is taking place.
Via AP:
The European Union is extending economic and travel sanctions to 13 people and five entities it accuses of involvement with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The EU's 28 member countries agreed to the action Friday, the bloc announced in a news release.
The EU said the names of the people, organizations and businesses affected will be made public Saturday.
The decision brings the total number of people subject to an EU-wide travel ban and asset freeze for allegedly undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity to 132, and the number of entities whose assets have been ordered frozen to 28.
Earlier this month, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said more sanctions alone will not end the crisis in eastern Ukraine, and that there is a need to relaunch a dialogue with Russia.
Here's today's map from the Ukrainian military authorities:
The Ukrainian Security Service's Support Center for Hostage Releases told reporters today that some 1,800 Ukrainian troops have been freed so far from rebel captivity, including more than 1,000 who benefited from that center's mediation efforts.
A recent Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council estimate suggested there were still more than 700 Ukrainian captives in rebel hands.
A ceremony honoring the victims of the MH17 crash was held at the international airport in Kharkiv today, according to TASS. Dutch investigators have been poring over the area of eastern Ukraine near Donetsk where the Malaysian airliner went down in mid-July for remains of the 298 victims and plane wreckage for the past several weeks, a search that was delayed months by continued fighting as Ukrainian troops battle pro-Russian forces.
The investigators will return and continue their search in the spring, Dutch Security and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten told a news conference today, according to TASS.