Accessibility links

Breaking News
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
10:25 17.3.2014
Following on the announcement by Crimean authorities that they would switch to Moscow's time zone at the end of this month.
10:28 17.3.2014
10:29 17.3.2014
Ukrainian security officials assure RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in a livestream program that police will be able to stabilize the situation in the eastern and southern parts of the country.
10:31 17.3.2014
10:54 17.3.2014
Today's decision to introduce the ruble as an "official currency" in Crimea was announced on the website of the peninsula's parliament, the Supreme Council -- the same body that the Verkhovna Rada voted to dissolve in a special session in Kyiv on March 15. Today's announcement says the hryvnya will be an official currency alongside the ruble until January 1, 2016.

Both currencies have taken a severe knock this year, one aspect of the economic fallout of the crisis over Crimea. The hryvnya has dropped nearly 15 percent while the ruble has been hovering near record lows.
11:11 17.3.2014
More on the comparisons between the Crimean referendum and September's vote in Scotland on whether to split from the UK.

As we've noted here, Russian officials and media have accused the West of double standards, essentially asking: "Why is Scotland's independence vote fine, but Crimea's is not?"

Britain's Foreign Office just sent this little factbox aimed at answering that question.
11:38 17.3.2014
Watch a Russian state television anchor -- Dmitry Kiselyov, who we profiled here -- describe Russia as "the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash."

State TV Says Russia Could Turn U.S. To 'Radioactive Ash'
please wait

No media source currently available

0:00 0:00:52 0:00
11:51 17.3.2014
Sergei Aksyonov, the head of Crimea's unrecognized Russian-backed government, says Russia has given the peninsula 15 billion rubles ($400 million) in aid. Aksyonov tweets that this doubles Crimea's budget.



11:53 17.3.2014
12:00 17.3.2014

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG