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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

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Criminal probe launched after Saakashvili crosses border:

By RFE/RL

Police in Ukraine say they have launched a criminal investigation after Mikheil Saakashvili defied the authorities and returned to the country that stripped him of citizenship.

Backed by hundreds of supporters, Saakashvili, the ex-president of Georgia and former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, made his way from Poland into Ukraine on September 10, breaking through a corridor of Ukrainian border guards.

The incident came after a day of drama and repeatedly changing travel plans by Saakashvili.

Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said late on September 10 that charges would be pursued against the organizers of Saakashvili's unauthorized entry.

A statement by police in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Saakashvili spent the night, said on September 11 that regional police were investigating "events near the [Medyka]-Shehyni checkpoint along the Ukrainian-Polish border."

The statement did not name Saakashvili, but said those found guilty of illegally crossing the border could face up to five years in prison.

Writing on his Facebook page on September 11, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman called the incident an "attack" on Ukraine's statehood.

Saakashvili claims to have UN recognition as being "stateless" and says he wants to challenge the revocation of his citizenship at a court in Ukraine.

Besides running the risk of being arrested for illegally crossing into Ukraine, Saakashvili also faces possible extradition to Georgia where he is wanted on charges of misappropriating property and abusing his office during his nine years as Georgia's president. Saakashvili says those charges are politically motivated.

Saakashvili lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 when he was granted Ukrainian citizenship in order to take up Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's offer to become governor of the Black Sea region of Odesa. Tbilisi does not allow dual citizenship.

Saakashvili resigned from the Odesa governor's post in November 2016, complaining he had been blocked from carrying out reforms.

In July, Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship amid a falling out of the two former allies. (w/Interfax, TASS)

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