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Moscow Court Upholds Extending Pretrial Detention Of Ukrainian Sailors
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WATCH: Moscow Court Upholds Extending Pretrial Detention Of Ukrainian Sailors

Live Blog: A New Government In Ukraine (Archive Sept. 3, 2018-Aug. 16, 2019)

-- EDITOR'S NOTE: We have started a new Ukraine Live Blog as of August 17, 2019. You can find it here.

-- A court in Moscow has upheld a lower court's decision to extend pretrial detention for six of the 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian forces along with their three naval vessels in November near the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

-- The U.S. special peace envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, says Russian propaganda is making it a challenge to solve the conflict in the east of the country.

-- Two more executives of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private power and coal producer, have been charged in a criminal case on August 14 involving an alleged conspiracy to fix electricity prices with the state energy regulator, Interfax reported.

-- A Ukrainian deputy minister and his aide have been detained after allegedly taking a bribe worth $480,000, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said on Facebook.

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

16:25 8.2.2019

13:43 8.2.2019

Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):

13:41 8.2.2019

12:32 8.2.2019

Activists mark birthdays of two Ukrainians jailed by Russia:

By the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

KYIV -- Dozens of human rights activists have gathered in Kyiv's central square to mark the birthdays of two Ukrainian citizens jailed by the Russian authorities.

The activists held posters demanding the immediate release of Volodymyr Balukh, and Roman Sushchenko, and dozens of other Ukrainian citizens imprisoned in Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea on what they called politically motivated charges.

Balukh, who marked his 48th birthday on February 8, is serving a nearly five-year prison term in Crimea for possession of weapons and explosives and assaulting a prison guard. He and his supporters reject the charges and say they are politically motivated.

Sushchenko, who is a journalist, was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security prison in June in Russia on espionage charges that he also said are politically motivated. He will mark his 49th birthday on February 9.

The activists expressed their support for the two activists and other Ukrainian citizens held in Russia, and warned that the number of Ukrainian nationals jailed in Russia for their views is on the rise.

Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries, after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power by protests.

Rights groups say that Russia has moved aggressively to prosecute Ukrainian activists and anyone who questions the annexation.

In 2017, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens held in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

The list included prominent filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a Russian prison after being convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in a trial supporters called absurd.

The list, which the parliament statement said was not complete, also included several leaders of the Crimean Tatar minority, which rights groups say has faced abuse and discrimination since Russia's takeover.

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