RFE/RL's Kazakh Service has sent us this Ukraine-related item from Aqtobe:
Trial Begins For Kazakh Citizen Suspected Of Fighting Alongside Separatists In Ukraine
The trial of a Kazakh citizen suspected of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine started in Kazakhstan on October 24.
Maksim Yermolov, who attended his trial in the northwestern city of Aqtobe, pleaded not guilty.
Yermolov, an ethnic Russian, was detained in February 2015 after returning to Kazakhstan from Ukraine's Donetsk region, where he allegedly fought alongside pro-Russia separatists who are battling Ukrainian government forces.
Yermolov was charged with "taking part in military conflicts abroad" and ordered not to leave the city of Aqtobe.
He was placed in pre-trial detention after he failed to attend his trial twice.
Kazakhstan jailed at least two Kazakh citizens for fighting against Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine from 2014 to 2015.
Four Kazakh citizens were also convicted during that period of inciting separatism and ethnic hatred on the Internet in connection with Ukraine's conflict.
Here's a new item from our news desk:
Russia Says Proposal For Armed OSCE Ukraine Mission Still Vague
Moscow supports the idea of creating an armed Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) police mission in eastern Ukraine but cast doubt that such a force could be formed soon.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on October 24 that President Vladimir Putin "responded with potential consent to the idea of such a mission."
"But for the time being, the OSCE has no understanding of how such a mission can be formed, where it is to be deployed, and so on," Peskov added.
Representatives of the Russia-backed separatist movements in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions opposed the deployment of an armed OSCE mission, a spokesman for the separatists said the same day.
The idea of such an OSCE mission was discussed at international talks in Berlin on October 20.
Russia denies providing military support to the separatists in Ukraine, despite mounting evidence provided by Kyiv and the international community that it is doing so.
According to the United Nations, more than 9,600 people have been killed and more than 22,000 injured since the conflict began in April 2014.