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A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.
A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

-- EDITOR'S NOTE: We have started a new Ukraine Live Blog as of September 3, 2018. You can find it here.

-- Tens of thousands of people gathered on September 2 in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to mourn a top rebel leader who was recently killed in a bomb attack.

-- Prominent Ukrainian historian Mykola Shityuk has been found dead in his home city of Mykolaiv, police said on September 2.​

-- Ukraine says it has imprisoned the man it accused of being recruited by Russia’s secret services to organize a murder plot against self-exiled Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.

-- Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for the killing of a top separatist leader in eastern Ukraine.

-- Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the head of the breakaway separatist entity known as the Donetsk People’s Republic, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on August 31.

-- The United States is ready to widen arms supplies to Ukraine to help build up the country's naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told The Guardian.

-- The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church in Istanbul has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow.

*Time stamps on the blog refer to local time in Ukraine

17:23 5.9.2017

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18:04 5.9.2017

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Here's the OSCE's report on the conflict area and what happened there yesterday:

19:52 5.9.2017

Here's a Saakashvili update from our news desk:

Ukraine Confirms Georgia Asked For Ex-President Saakashvili's Extradition

Former Georgian President and ex-Governor of Odessa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to return to Ukraine later this month, despite the extradition request. (file photo)
Former Georgian President and ex-Governor of Odessa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to return to Ukraine later this month, despite the extradition request. (file photo)

Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that they received a request from Georgia to extradite its former president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

"Ukraine has received a request to search for, detain and extradite Mikheil Saakashvili," Deputy Justice Minister Serhiy Petukhov told a news conference on September 5.

"The Justice Ministry is sending the request from Georgia ... to Ukraine's general prosecutor for an extradition review," Petukhov said.

The Georgian Prosecutor-General's office said on August 18 that it had sent the extradition request to Ukraine.

Citing Georgia's Chief Prosecutor's Office, Petukhov said that Saakashvili was a defendant in four criminal cases.

The charges include misappropriation of property and abuse of office, Petukhov said.

Saakashvili has said the charges are part of a political witch hunt by his opponents.

Saakashvili moved to Ukraine to help drive reforms after the 2014 uprising that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

He has been in conflict with the Kyiv authorities since quitting as governor of the Odessa region last year and accusing President Petro Poroshenko of abetting corruption.

Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship at the end of July, when Saakashvili was out of the country, a move that the former Georgian president condemned as an "illegal way to remove me from the political scene in Ukraine."

When Saakashvili was still the Odesa region's governor, Kyiv refused to extradite him to Georgia at least twice.

He has also been stripped of his Georgian citizenship.

Saakashvili is currently in Poland and has pledged to return to Ukraine on September 10.

Ukrainian authorities have said previously they would bar Saakashvili from entering the country and will confiscate his passport should he attempt entry.

Saakashvili came to power in Georgia after a peaceful pro-Western uprising, known as the Rose Revolution, in 2003.

He was president at the time of a disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008, a conflict that his critics said was the result of his own miscalculations.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

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