Ukrainians Of Buffalo

Follow all of the latest developments as they happen.

The Ukrainian military has said that two soldiers were killed and two wounded in the eastern part of the country despite a cease-fire that began on June 23.

The United States on June 22 accused Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine of a campaign of "violence and harassment" against international monitors aimed at preventing them from reporting truce violations.

European Union leaders have agreed to extend the bloc's economic sanctions against Russia by six months until January 31.

Russia's Foreign Ministry slammed new U.S. sanctions that target mainly Russian people and companies linked to the Ukraine conflict, saying the move puts at "serious risk" the entire bilateral relationship.

A court in Russia-controlled Crimea has prolonged the pre-verdict detention of Crimean Tatar activist Ahtem Chiygoz, who is on trial in connection with resistance to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he and European Council President Donald Tusk have discussed relations with the EU, as well as U.S. sanctions related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and to Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that representatives from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have agreed to visit Kyiv "in the near future" and will sign "very important" defense agreements.

The trial of a Crimean Tatar leader who has criticized Russia's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine resumed on June 21.

The trial of Mykola Semena, an RFE/RL contributor who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge on the Russian-controlled peninsula, has been adjourned until July 7.

Figures linked to businessman called ‘Putin’s cook’ among new individuals and companies added to Washington’s sanctions list

Washington has broadened its sanctions against Russian companies and officials, on the same day Donald Trump welcomed the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, to the White House.

The US added a new batch of Russian individuals and companies to its sanctions list, including those linked to a shadowy businessman known as “Putin’s cook”.

Related:US shoots down second Iran-made armed drone over Syria in 12 days

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Hours before Petro Poroshenko’s arrival, details of the meeting had still not been confirmed with the apparently reluctant US president

Donald Trump is expected to meet the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, at the White House on Tuesday but the encounter is likely to be a brief and leave questions unanswered over the administration’s commitment to Ukraine.

By the time Poroshenko had left Kiev on Monday, the meeting with Trump had still not been confirmed, but was still being negotiated with an apparently reluctant US president.

Related:Ukraine ambassador attacks Trump allies' secret peace plan

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I don’t know what my grandfather – who served in the German army in the first world war and was murdered in the Holocaust – would have considered his nationality to be, writes Christina Craig

I too have been denied German citizenship (Letters, 17 June) because my mother and grandfather, both victims of Nazism, have been determined not to be German. This ruling ignores the historical context of fluid nations and borders. My mother came to England in 1939 on the Kindertransport. She was born in Berlin in 1925 to a German mother, whose German family is documented for three generations. But my grandfather came from Kolomyja. When he was born, Kolomyja was in the Austro-Hungarian empire. But at the end of both world wars, nations and their boundaries were redrawn. In 1919 Kolomyja found itself part of the newly created Polish republic. In 1945 it was transferred to Ukraine. My grandfather served in the German army in the first world war, spoke German and lived and worked in Berlin for 20 years until he was deported in 1938 by the Nazis. He was murdered in a forced labour camp. I do not know what he would have considered his nationality to be or if the concept had any meaning for him. I do know that he was murdered in the Holocaust because he was a Jew who lived in Germany.
Christina Craig
Bath

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