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Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya speaks to the UN General Assembly on March 27.
Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya speaks to the UN General Assembly on March 27.

Live Blog: UN Backs Ukraine Integrity

Final Summary For March 27

-- 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 Muzychko earlier 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
19:48 16.3.2014
Funniest thing about this election day video report from our Ukrainian Service is the polling-station worker -- about 1 minute and 15 seconds in, within two hours or so of the polls opening, and with complete disregard for "non-Russians" -- matter-of-factly calling the result of the referendum: "Today, the people are expressing their will to join Russia because we are all Russian people."
19:52 16.3.2014
20:01 16.3.2014
Pro-Russia protesters raid, stop for lunch, at the offices of the Donbass Industrial Union headed by Donetsk Governor Serhiy Taruta.


20:02 16.3.2014
Fresh piece from correspondent Ron Synovitz on Crimea: "Annexation And Recognition -- The Legal Battles Ahead."

Dissolving the regional parliament in Crimea could strengthen Kyiv’s argument that Crimean secession violates international law because it violates Ukraine’s constitution.

At the same time, the dissolution of Crimea’s regional parliament could be seen as an attempt by Kyiv to counter proposed legislation in Russia’s Duma that would be required for the Kremlin to annex Crimea.

Currently, there are legal barriers under Russian constitutional law that must be removed before the Kremlin can take the step of annexation.
20:03 16.3.2014
Russian media report that the sponsor of a draft bill in Russia’s State Duma that would allow Russia to accept Crimea’s annexation by the Kremlin says lawmakers will “approve all laws as soon as reasonably possible.” Sergei Mironov, the leader of the Just Russia party, made the remarks on Russian state television after exit polls in Crimea suggested overwhelming support in the regional referendum for Crimea to join the Russian Federation.

"All will happen strictly and quickly. Our Crimean brothers should not have any doubts," Mironov said.
20:16 16.3.2014
Nina Khrushcheva, a Russian-American professor with the World Policy Institute think tank and granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, told CNN's Hala Gorani that today's Crimean referendum was "illegal, adding:

"Ukrainians were very close to us throughout history -- you know, Great Russia as it was called versus Small Russia as Ukraine was known -- and they were really Slavic brothers in so many different ways. Today I am very fearful that that relationship really has been severed very brutally. I really don't want to be hated by Ukrainians, but it does seem that they have all the right to hate us as much as, you mentioned before, the Crimean Tatars do hate the Soviets and are afraid of the Russians."
20:27 16.3.2014
20:35 16.3.2014
Urging a "fundamental reassessment" of the U.S. relationship with Moscow, Senator John McCain on CNN dismissively calls Russia "a gas station masquerading as a country."
20:37 16.3.2014
Crimean election officials say that with votes counted from more than half of the polling stations in today's referendum, 95 percent of the voters support joining Russia.

Aksyonov weighs in:
20:45 16.3.2014

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