16:14
29.4.2014
An update from our news desk on the situation in Luhansk:
Several thousand pro-Russian demonstrators in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk have seized the regional administration building and the prosecutor's office.
The regional administration building was the first to fall to protesters on April 29 and afterward a group of several hundred people went to the prosecutor's building and seized it also.
There were reports some of the pro-Russian demonstrators had gone to the local television center and were storming the police station.
Acting Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchynov demanded the dismissal of the Luhansk and Donetsk police commanders.
The security situation in eastern Ukraine has been deteriorating.
The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv Hennadiy Kernes was shot in the back on April 28.
Kernes was flown to Israel on April 29 and has successfully undergone surgery although Israeli doctors say Kernes may have to undergo a second surgery.
The regional administration building was the first to fall to protesters on April 29 and afterward a group of several hundred people went to the prosecutor's building and seized it also.
There were reports some of the pro-Russian demonstrators had gone to the local television center and were storming the police station.
Acting Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchynov demanded the dismissal of the Luhansk and Donetsk police commanders.
The security situation in eastern Ukraine has been deteriorating.
The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv Hennadiy Kernes was shot in the back on April 28.
Kernes was flown to Israel on April 29 and has successfully undergone surgery although Israeli doctors say Kernes may have to undergo a second surgery.
16:25
29.4.2014
From our news desk:
The head of the OSCE was in Kyiv on April 29 to discuss efforts to secure the release of a group of OSCE monitors held by pro-Russian militants.
Lamberto Zannier, the secretary-general of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, met with Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya and with U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.
.
Zannier declined to give an update on the fate of the seven European monitors who are held in Ukraine's rebel-controlled eastern city of Slovyansk.
Pro-Russian separatists seized eight OSCE observers on April 25, describing them as "NATO spies" and "prisoners of war." One monitor was later released on medical grounds.
The OSCE monitors were in Ukraine to assess progress toward implementing an international agreement reached on April 17 in Geneva that was supposed to deescalate the crisis.
Lamberto Zannier, the secretary-general of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, met with Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya and with U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.
.
Zannier declined to give an update on the fate of the seven European monitors who are held in Ukraine's rebel-controlled eastern city of Slovyansk.
Pro-Russian separatists seized eight OSCE observers on April 25, describing them as "NATO spies" and "prisoners of war." One monitor was later released on medical grounds.
The OSCE monitors were in Ukraine to assess progress toward implementing an international agreement reached on April 17 in Geneva that was supposed to deescalate the crisis.
16:36
29.4.2014
18:09
29.4.2014
18:09
29.4.2014
18:49
29.4.2014
Quick rundown of Kerry's speech tonight from our news desk:
U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry has said events in Ukraine are a "wake-up call" to NATO allies.
Kerry said in a speech in Washington on April 29 that through its occupation of Crimea and its subsequent destabliziation of eastern Ukraine, Russia seeks to "change the security landscape of eastern Europe."
He said NATO allies "have to make it absolutely clear to the Kremlin that NATO territory is inviolable we will defend every single inch of it."
He said the United States and its European allies have worked hard to try to "set a new course in the post-Cold War era."
He said Russia's actions in Ukraine showed that President Vladimir Putin "is playing by a different set of rules."
Kerry said in a speech in Washington on April 29 that through its occupation of Crimea and its subsequent destabliziation of eastern Ukraine, Russia seeks to "change the security landscape of eastern Europe."
He said NATO allies "have to make it absolutely clear to the Kremlin that NATO territory is inviolable we will defend every single inch of it."
He said the United States and its European allies have worked hard to try to "set a new course in the post-Cold War era."
He said Russia's actions in Ukraine showed that President Vladimir Putin "is playing by a different set of rules."
19:25
29.4.2014
05:23
30.4.2014
Good morning. We will get our Ukraine live blog started today with some interesting comments from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, which have been published in "The Wall Street Journal:"
Secretary of State John Kerry has been thinking about, talking through and wrestling with the Ukraine crisis for weeks, but he still grasps for words to describe the motivations of the man at its center: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"You almost feel that he's creating his own reality, and his own sort of world, divorced from a lot of what's real on the ground for all those people, including people in his own country," Mr. Kerry said in an interview late Monday.
"You almost feel that he's creating his own reality, and his own sort of world, divorced from a lot of what's real on the ground for all those people, including people in his own country," Mr. Kerry said in an interview late Monday.
Read more here
05:28
30.4.2014
Not positive for Ukraine especially since DC lives on poll results 47% Say U.S. Should Reduce Role in World Affairs http://t.co/HfLdRevk75
— bruce springnote (@BSpringnote) April 30, 2014
05:51
30.4.2014
Video excerpts from my Ukraine media center remarks https://t.co/5gfLwzsEwx
— Geoffrey Pyatt (@GeoffPyatt) April 30, 2014