11:35
24.4.2014
The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on the Kyiv government's reiteration of its commitment to the de-escalation deal reached last week in Geneva:
11:37
24.4.2014
Video of a tense vehicle check by Ukrainian special forces, purportedly today in Slovyansk:
11:41
24.4.2014
Following this story intently.
11:48
24.4.2014
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports that leaflets were distributed in Slovyansk by pro-Kyiv forces urging residents to remain in their homes as much as possible, ignore instructions from the self-styled local authorities run by separatists, and don't be duped into responses to "provocations."
11:49
24.4.2014
11:51
24.4.2014
Here's video of U.S. Senator Bob Corker telling RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that Western countries have not done enough to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine. Corker, a Republican member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, also praised Ukraine's leadership for showing restraint during the crisis.
11:56
24.4.2014
More complete quotes via our newsroom from Putin's appearance today in St. Petersburg:
"If the current Kyiv regime has really started to use the army against the population inside the country, then it is beyond any doubt that this is a very serious crime against its own people."
"If the current Kyiv authorities have done this, this is already a junta, some kind of clique. They, first of all, don't have a national mandate. They, in the best case, have only elements of legitimacy, and it is only within the parliament."
"And if these people have advanced to the so-called 'acute phase', this is not an acute phase, it is just a punitive operation. And, of course, there will certainly be consequences for the people who make such decisions, including [an impact] on our bilateral relations."
"If the current Kyiv authorities have done this, this is already a junta, some kind of clique. They, first of all, don't have a national mandate. They, in the best case, have only elements of legitimacy, and it is only within the parliament."
"And if these people have advanced to the so-called 'acute phase', this is not an acute phase, it is just a punitive operation. And, of course, there will certainly be consequences for the people who make such decisions, including [an impact] on our bilateral relations."
12:20
24.4.2014
12:23
24.4.2014
A full quote from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking today at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
"The key unresolved problems in the military and political sphere in Europe, the persistent statements that more and more countries, including former Soviet republics, should eventually join NATO -- all this has become the last straw in the recent months that added up to the situation in Ukraine, where the United States and the European Union tried to stage -- let's call things with their real names, we are among scholars, not diplomats -- another 'color revolution', an operation to unconstitutionally change the regime."
12:27
24.4.2014