The Ukrainian military showing off its Pelican air-defense system:
A Czech NATO official, Petr Pavel, made a statement at an international conference on countering misinformation in Prague that the situation in Ukraine is not "black and white," a comment that surprised some of the attendees.
Belarus is upset that Ukrainian officials ordered a Belavia plane to return to Kyiv after it had taken off for Belarus and was reportedly just about to cross into Belarusian airspace. An official protest by Minsk has been registered with the Ukrainian ambassador. One passenger from the Belavia was detained by Ukrainian officials after the plane returned to Kyiv. TASS said the man who was held has Armenian citizenship.
Vox Pop in Sevastopol by RFE/RL asking people what they would think about the erection of a bust of Vladimir Putin:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that while Moscow is not opposed an armed peacekeeping force in Ukraine's Donbas region, the OSCE has not yet determined under what conditions such a mission would operate, TASS reported.
In response to a question during an interview with the weekly Vesti V Subbotu program on October 22, Peskov said President Vladimir Putin did not object to a suggestion by Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko in Berlin on October 19 to have an armed police mission of the OSCE in the Donbas.
Peskov said "nobody objected to the idea to have an armed OSCE police mission there. But in this case it is a question mostly addressed to the OSCE as an
organization, which, by the way, is now chaired by Germany. The organization itself now is unable to explain the conditions of such a mission's work."
Representatives of the separatist groups in Luhansk and Donetsk have voiced strong opposition to such an armed mission under OSCE auspices, even organizing large public demonstrations against them in recent weeks.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Friday, October 21, 2016. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.