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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
20:46 16.3.2014
Three missing Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church priests, thought to have been abducted by "self-defense" forces in Crimea, have turned up "safe," according to a statement from the church quoted by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
20:55 16.3.2014
Ukraine's Paralympic team leaves Sochi with a message of Peace.
21:00 16.3.2014
With the vote count apparently headed toward a huge margin of victory for Crimean secession from Ukraine to join Russia and Western governments preparing for tough decisions on specific responses, we will end our live blogging for March 16.
09:03 17.3.2014
News agencies report that authorities in Crimea have declared the republic's independence from Ukraine and formally applied to join the Russian Federation.
09:26 17.3.2014
Interfax reports that Crimea will switch to Moscow time on March 30. Right now Crimea is on Kyiv time, GMT+2. A move will put the peninsula two hours ahead, GMT+4
09:30 17.3.2014
Crimea's regional parliament overwhelmingly backed the independence declaration and application to join Russia at a special session this morning. It also declared all Ukrainian state property would be nationalized.
09:31 17.3.2014
Agencies report that Ukraine's parliament has endorsed a presidential decree to carry out a partial mobilization involving 40,000 reservists.
09:48 17.3.2014
As EU leaders meet to discuss slapping sanctions on Russia over Crimea, the "EU Observer" carries an interesting piece noting the extent of EU arms sales to Russia. It's not just France's $1.4 billion sale of two Mistral warships to Russia.

A sample:
The Mistral, as it turned out, was also - figuratively speaking - an ice-breaker.

Other projects and deals followed, such as joint Franco-Russian development of a new generation of Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Thales, a French electronics and defence technology giant, is also helping to equip the Russian armed forces with thermal-vision, or night-operations, capability.

As recently as last month, Dmitri Rogozin, Russia’s first deputy prime minister in charge of the defence industry, declared a new era of Franco-Russian military co-operation, involving joined competences and deeper exchange of information.

Germany is also expanding its military exports to Russia.

Its Federal Security Council, headed by the Chancellor, has made a habit of dolling out export permits left and right to sending German-made military equipment to countries which have dubious human rights records and which could potentially misuse the materials to suppress domestic dissent or to stir up regional conflicts.

Russia is among them - getting up to 500 export permits in 2011 alone, according to the Military Equipment Export Report.
10:02 17.3.2014
Putin will reportedly address a joint session of the Russian parliament on Crimea on March 18 at 3:00 p.m. Moscow time. That according to Duma deputy speaker Ivan Melnikov and Garry Minkh, the Kremlin's representative in the State Duma
10:11 17.3.2014

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