Five American companies owned by Ukrainian tycoons who are accused of laundering money through U.S. assets were approved for as much as $13.3 million in loans through a federal program aimed at saving jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, according to U.S. government records.

A court in Kyiv has ruled to transfer one of the suspects in the high-profile 2016 killing in the Ukrainian capital of journalist Pavel Sheremet from a detention center to house arrest.

German authorities have made a total of 17 requests for information to Russia in connection with the murder in a Berlin park of a Georgian citizen, but to no avail, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in Moscow on August 11.

Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova says Russia is currently holding 133 Ukrainian citizens on politically motivated charges, including 97 Crimean Tatars.

The United States has moved to seize U.S. real estate belonging to a powerful Ukrainian tycoon with links to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Influential Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskiy and an associate scrambled to keep hold of the U.S. steel network they spent a decade and half a billion dollars to construct. They failed -- possibly done in by U.S. government concerns about a deal that might have allowed them to keep the assets. 

The FBI has raided the offices of U.S. companies belonging to Ukrainian tycoons Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Hennadiy Boholyubov in Cleveland and Miami.

Ukrainian police have detained a man who held a woman hostage in a Kyiv bank for hours, threatening to detonate an explosive device that he said was in his backpack.

A critic of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka who last month fled the country along with his children after his and others' candidacies were rejected for next week's presidential election has reportedly left Russia for neighboring Ukraine.

A gunman in Ukraine has released 13 hostages after the country's president agreed to post a video on Facebook recommending a 2005 animal rights documentary.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy promoted Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, to help end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh had seized a bus with the people onboard.

The video has since been taken down from Facebook and Kryvosh arrested.

• Hostage siege ends after Ukrainian president endorses Joaquin Phoenix film

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Gunman surrenders after video recommending 2005’s Earthlings posted on Facebook

A gunman in Ukraine armed with an automatic rifle and grenades has surrendered to police and released 13 hostages after the country’s president consented to his demand to recommend the 2005 animal rights documentary Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.

The niche film recommendation, delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over Facebook, helped end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh seized a bus and demanded that dozens of government officials admit to being “terrorists”.

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• Anti-hate network chair: ‘I’m frankly dumbfounded’
• Cenotaph commemorating Ukrainian SS division graffitied

Graffiti spray-painted on a monument to Nazi soldiers in a small Canadian city is being investigated by police as a hate crime – a move that has prompted disbelief among human rights advocates.

Around 21 June, the words “Nazi war monument” were spray-painted on to a cenotaph commemorating soldiers in the 14th SS Division in an Ontario cemetery, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

Related:A Russian Youth review – horror and heartbreak on the eastern front

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