Ukrainian lawmakers consider Russian parliamentary elections illegitimate:
The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada has branded Russia's parliamentary elections illegitimate.
In a resolution passed by 264 votes in favor on September 20, the lawmakers said they do not recognize the legitimacy of the elections because they were also held in the forcibly annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea -- the first time since Moscow's takeover of the territory in March 2014.
The lawmakers also urged the international community to follow their example.
The September 18 vote strengthened the ruling United Russia party's grip on the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. (Interfax, TASS)
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):
Ukraine detains Uzbek suspected of spying for Russia:
Ukraine says it has detained a 25-year-old Uzbek national on suspicion of spying for Russia.
The State Border Guard Service (DPS) says the suspect was detained at a border checkpoint on September 19 while entering Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region from Russia.
The DPS said border guards found a camera hidden in a button on the suspect's clothes as well as video- and audio-recording devices in his pockets.
The Uzbek citizen, whose name was not disclosed, told border guards that he received the devices from Russian officials after he was detained in Russia for staying in the country illegally.
The suspect was handed over to Ukraine's Security Service for further investigations. (112.ua, Ua.today)
Anti-Maidan activist shot dead in Russia:
A Ukrainian man wanted by Kyiv for terrorism has been shot dead in a Moscow suburb.
An unknown attacker shot Yevhen Zhylin, a former Ukrainian Army officer, in a restaurant in the Moscow region's Odintsovo district late on September 19.
A person accompanying Zhylin was wounded and rushed to hospital in serious condition.
Russia's Investigative Committee said Zhylin's killing was most likely related to his business problems.
Zhylin, a Ukrainian citizen, established a group called Oplot (Stronghold) in Ukraine's eastern region of Kharkiv in 2010 that actively opposed pro-European demonstrations known as Maidan in 2013-14.
After Maidan protesters toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, Zhylin and his group fled Ukraine for Russia.
A court in Kyiv issued an arrest warrant for Zhylin and added him to international wanted list in February.
He is suspected in terrorism, violent attacks against activists and organization of an attempted murder of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. (RIA Novosti, UNIAN)