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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

20:05 11.9.2017

22:04 11.9.2017

A tweet from Ukraine's foreign minister:

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We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.

08:25 12.9.2017

Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with our news desk's latest update on the Saakashvili situation:

Saakashvili Says He Wants To Unite Opposition In Ukraine

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili drinks coffee in the lobby of his hotel in the central western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 11.
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili drinks coffee in the lobby of his hotel in the central western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 11.

Mikheil Saakashvili, former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, said on September 11 after forcing his way into Ukraine that he wants to get involved in Ukrainian politics again and help unite Kyiv's opposition.

"I want to say that this is the beginning of my fight," Saakashvili said at a press conference in Lviv after illegally crossing into Ukraine from Poland a day earlier despite warnings from Ukrainian authorities that he faces "serious" criminal charges.

"I am fighting against rampant corruption, against the fact that oligarchs are in full control of Ukraine again, against the fact that the Maidan has been betrayed," he said. "We should have democracy in our country and should not have the diktat of the oligarchs."

Saakashvili said he would travel to all regions of Ukraine to unite "different political forces around a common theme that we must have a democracy and we should not let oligarchs hold sway."

Saakashvili has said he was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by his one-time ally Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko because Poroshenko views him as a threat. But he said on September 11 that he does not want the presidency for himself and wants to promote a new, younger politician to the post, the Reuters news agency reported.

Criminal Investigation Launched

Saakashvili was joined as he crossed the border by Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and leader of one of Ukraine's largest opposition parties. She currently is ahead of Poroshenko in public opinion polls, Reuters reported.

Reuters also reported that reformist lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem, one of the leaders of the Maidan protests and a member of Poroshenko's faction in parliament, traveled with Saakashvili and has accused Kyiv authorities of trying to silence opponents.

"We didn't want this country when we stayed on Maidan," Reuters quoted Nayyem as saying. "We wanted a country in which opponents, political opponents, have a right to say what they want."

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov had earlier called the border breach by Saakashvili "an attack on the state's basic institutions" and said all those responsible should turn themselves in.

A criminal investigation was launched against Saakashvili after he defied Ukrainian authorities and returned to the country that stripped him of citizenship in July.

Poroshenko chided Saakashvili for crossing the border without proper documents. He said Saakashvili should have contested the decree stripping him of Ukrainian citizenship in court if he disagreed with it.

Saakashvili said in Lviv that he no longer had a Ukrainian passport, claiming it was "stolen by police" from a bus that had transported him into Ukraine.

"This morning my lawyer delivered to the Ukrainian migration service my application for protection from Ukrainian authorities," Saakashvili said. "That means I am legally in Ukraine."

WATCH: Saakashvili Says He Crossed Ukrainian Border Legally

In a statement, police in Lviv denied that Saakashvili's passport had been taken and said his claim "did not correspond to events" at the time of Saakashvili's crossing.

Backed by hundreds of supporters, Saakashvili made his way from Poland into Ukraine on September 10, breaking through a line of Ukrainian border guards.

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

Earlier, police in Lviv, where Saakashvili spent the night, said regional police were investigating "events near the [Medyka]-Shehyni checkpoint along the Ukrainian-Polish border."

The statement said those found guilty of illegally crossing the border could face up to five years in prison.

'Attack' On Statehood

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

"It's time to fight for the state and not for power," he said.

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.

WATCH: Saakashvili Supporters Force Entry Into 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 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 between the two former allies.

With reporting by Interfax, UNIAN, AFP, Reuters, and TASS
09:43 12.9.2017

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