-- The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that affirms Ukraine's territorial integrity.
-- The IMF has announced "a staff-level agreement" with Kyiv on assistance of $14 billion-$18 billion in conjunction with a reform program that will "unlock" up to $27 billion over the next two years, pending final approval next month. Tthe U.S. Congress has also passed an aid bill for Ukraine.
-- Ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko has announced plans to run for president.
-- Members of the Right Sector have been holding a demonstration outside the Ukrainian parliament building to vent their anger at the killing of prominent member Oleksander Muzychkoearlier in the week.
-- Six Ukrainian military officers detained by pro-Russian troops in Crimea have been released, including Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, but five others are still being held captive.
-- Anonymous sources quoted by CNN say U.S. intelligence "concludes it is more likely than previously thought that Russian forces will enter eastern Ukraine."
-- U.S. President Barack Obama, in the keynote speech of his visit to Europe, chided Russia for its use of "brute force" in Ukraine and vowed that a determined alliance of the United States and Europe will prevail over time.
*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
"Responding to the shouts 'Stop! Police! Do not move!' Biliy [Oleksandr Muzychko], who heard this upon his exit from the cafe, attempted to flee, jumped out of the window, rolled over on the ground and while running away opened fire at our riot policemen."
-- Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Yevdokimov on the death overnight of Right Sector leader Muzychko in a shoot-out with police (as quoted by Reuters)
12:2825.3.2014
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says two Ukrainian political activists were beaten and another tortured by pro-Russian forces in Crimea. HRW says Andriy Schekun and Anatoliy Kovalsky -- who had gone to Crimea to organize pro-Ukraine rallies ahead of the March 16 referendum on Crimea's status -- were detained, interrogated, and beaten for 11 days before being released. Schekun had also been tortured with electric shocks, was tied up, and often kept naked.
The New York-based watchdog said at least four other activists were detained by pro-Russia militia this month. Three are still missing.
Here's an excerpt from that report:
“These horrendous arbitrary detentions and the allegation of torture in Crimea urgently demand a thorough investigation,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “For weeks irregular armed units have been allowed to run amok on the Crimean peninsula without any apparent legal authority or accountability, and it’s led to insecurity, arbitrary detentions, abductions, and torture.”
The Crimean authorities and Russia as an occupying power should immediately safeguard respect for the law, Human Rights Watch said. They should ensure that no armed individuals or groups are allowed to operate outside of the existing legal framework and that members of any special forces operating on Crimean territory comply with international human rights and humanitarian law.
12:2225.3.2014
12:2125.3.2014
Nina and Mikhail Zhyzneuski with their daughter Natalia.
RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports that the family of one of Euromaidan's first victims, Mikhail Zhyzneuski, has been denied access to a charity donation sent by a church congregation in California.
Zhyzneuski, 25, was killed on January 22 when he was shot in the heart by an unknown assailant while providing security for protesters at Kyiv's Independence Square. He was buried in the family's hometown of Homel on January 28.
Zhyzneuski's mother, Nina, says a Belarusian parish in California sent the family a donation of $1,600 after hearing about their plight. But she says the state-run Belarusbank has refused to disperse the money, transferred by Western Union, because the official name of the sender is missing from the form.
"Of course, for me it would be a lot of help," said Nina, a retired public sector worker who suffers from diabetes and hypertension, and who underwent heart surgery earlier this month. "My pension is very small, just 1,960,000 Belarusian rubles ($200), and all of that goes towards medicine. I depend on my daughter and her husband for food."
Nina's surgery and recuperation prevented her from marking the 40th day after her son's death, a typical commemoration among Orthodox believers. She says many of the hospital's doctors and nurses treated her compassionately, knowing what had happened to Mikhail.
Some of her fellow patients, however, were less kind.
"They noticed my last name and they said I was a whore, that my child should have been taken away from me from the start," she says. "That I was practically an enemy of the people, because Misha ended up in Ukraine and died the way he did."
She says other patients, themselves from Homel, came to her defense. "They said, 'Shame on you, you're all women, you have children of your own! ... Today it's her grief, but tomorrow the same thing could happen to any of us."
Zhyzneuski's father, Mikhail, says the family's loss has only become more painful as they've watched the Ukrainian death toll mount, culminating in Russia's annexation of Crimea.
"I think Ukraine should be allowed to decide their own affairs, without interference," he says. "So that people didn't die at Maidan in vain."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister announced last week that it would grant Zhyzneuski, who moved from Belarus to Ukraine in 2005, the posthumous title of Hero of Ukraine.
A memorial to Zhyzneuski in Kyiv.
12:2025.3.2014
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has launched two new websites with news and current-affairs content targeting readers in Ukraine's Crimea region. The sites are currently published in the Russian and Tatar languages and will soon include Ukrainian, as well. RFE/RL, based in Prague, broadcasts to 21 countries in 28 languages and is a private, nonprofit organization funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
12:1725.3.2014
Naturalized Russian actor Gerard Depardieu, who famously took Russian citizenship to protest French tax policy, is shilling for a new line of "Proud To Be Russian" watches in his work for Swiss watchmaker Cvstos, the "Hollywood Reporter" says. It adds:
The actor has also avoided any comments on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the Black Sea peninsular region of Crimea, which recently seceded from Ukraine to Russia. Incidentally, last year, the Ukrainian media reported that Depardieu had purchased vineyards near the Crimean town of Bakhchysarai.
Russia's RT channel chronicled Depardieu's ultimately victorious plight to get his hands on some land in Crimea to get into the wine business there:
The star of Cyrano de Bergerac was set to acquire several vineyards in the sunny republic of Crimea back in 2005. For reasons unknown however, local authorities refused to sell them to the French actor, despite his friendship with the then Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko.
But the star didn’t lose his bottle, and now finally the 63-year-old wine connoisseur has become the proud owner of a winery in Ukraine, reportedly set to produce table and sparkling wines.
11:5425.3.2014
Freshly chosen acting Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval looking decidedly unenthused about his new role during parliamentary proceedings today in which he was tabbed to succeed Ihor Tenyukh.
