Sunday’s election is crucial for Ukraine but there are hopes it will also encourage a more democratic Russia, writes Carl Bildt

Some of Ukraine’s top officials have ended up in a wheelie bin after being targeted by far-right groups.

Regarding the chaotic situation in Ukraine, the treachery and delusion of the European Union is plain for all to see: firstly, by backing the violent overthrow of a democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych; secondly, by signing an association agreement with Ukraine in the middle of a civil war; and, thirdly, by supporting president Petro Poroshenko in Eastern Ukraine.

Sustained shelling in the main rebel stronghold in eastern Ukraine has struck residential buildings and a hospital, killing at least four people and wounding 10 others.

Ukraine’s president has spoken with his counterparts from Russia, Germany and France about how best to resolve the deadly conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed up to a trade and economic pact with the European Union, saying it may be the “most important day” for his country since it became independent from the Soviet Union.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is ready to “work with” the new authorities in Ukraine which result from the presidential election planned for tomorrow.

Ukraine must pay in advance for Russian gas supplies starting from next month, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

Ukraine’s chief prosecutor has accused Viktor Yanukovich of heading a mafia-style syndicate whose crimes cost the former Soviet republic up to $100 billion (€72bn) and said some of the stolen money was now being used to fund Russian-backed separatists.

The US said yesterday it was prepared to impose further targeted sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine and that European leaders had agreed to coordinate on steps to make Moscow pay.

Ukraine’s prime minister has told leaders in the east of the country that he is committed to allowing regions to have more powers.

Russia sharply hiked the price for natural gas to Ukraine today, raising the heat on its cash-strapped government, while Ukrainian police moved to disarm members of a radical nationalist group after a shooting spree in the capital, Kiev.

Vladimir Putin has called US president Barack Obama to discuss a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister of Ukraine who was released from jail last month after her arch-foe Viktor Yanukovych fled from power, has confirmed she will again run for president in an election on May 25.

Shots have been fired at a Ukrainian air force base in Crimea that has been blocked off by Russian forces.

President Vladimir Putin completed the annexation of Crimea yesterday, signing the peninsula into Russia at nearly the same time his Ukrainian counterpart sealed a deal pulling his country closer to Europe.

Ukraine’s prime minister has told the UN Security Council that Russia had carried out “military aggression” in Crimea, and dramatically switched from English to Russian to ask Russia whether it wants war.

The Crimean parliament has voted that the Black Sea peninsula will declare itself an independent state if its residents agree to split off from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum.

Ukraine is practically in a state of war with Russia, it was claimed tonight as Moscow warned Russian-leaning eastern regions have plunged into lawlessness.

MPs in the embattled Crimean region of Ukraine have decided to hold a referendum on March 16 on whether Crimea should become part of Russia.

More than 11,000 pro-Russian forces control all access to Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and have blockaded all military bases that have not yet surrendered, Crimea’s new leader said.

President Vladimir Putin delivered a robust defence of Russia’s actions in Crimea and said he would use force in Ukraine only as a last resort, easing market fears yesterday that East-West tension over the former Soviet republic could lead to war.

Accusing the West of encouraging an “unconstitutional coup” in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow reserves the right to use its military to protect Russians there but voiced hope it will not need to do so.

President Vladimir Putin has pulled his forces back from the Ukrainian border yet said Moscow reserves the right to use all means to protect Russians in Ukraine.

President Barack Obama has accused Russia of being “on the wrong side of history” with its military intervention in Ukraine and said he’s examining diplomatic and economic steps to isolate Moscow.

Russian forces controlling the strategic region of Crimea have demanded that the crew of two Ukrainian warships must surrender, according to Ukrainian sources.

Russia's foreign minister has justified the use of Russian troops streaming into neighbouring Ukraine's Crimea region as a necessary protection for his country's citizens living there.

Because Ukraine doesn’t have full member status in Nato, the US and Europe are not obliged to help, says Julie Pace

A tense standoff was in place in the Crimea crisis tonight as Russian forces continued to surround a Ukrainian army base.

The Kremlin says Russian president Vladimir Putin has asked parliament for permission to use the country’s military in Ukraine.

The discord between Russia and Ukraine sharpened today when the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine’s Crimea region claimed control of the military and police and appealed to Russia’s president for help in keeping peace there.

Barack Obama has warned Moscow “there will be costs” if Russia intervenes militarily in crisis-torn Ukraine.

Fugitive Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych is pledging to fight on for his country’s future.

Russian forces have been accused of “an armed invasion” after units blocked a Ukrainian military airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea.

Dozens of armed men in military uniforms have seized an airport in Ukraine’s strategic Crimea region, it is reported.

Ukrainian fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych is asking Russia’s protection from “extremists”, according to a statement published by three Russian news agencies.

Russia’s order for 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness near Ukraine’s border has prompted a blunt warning from the United States that any military intervention in the crisis-torn nation would be a “grave mistake”.

Fighting broke out between pro and anti-Russian demonstrators in Ukraine’s Crimea region as Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered military exercises just across the border.

Ukraine’s new government will need to act fast to overhaul the country’s crisis-ridden economy, according to Anders Åslund

The former chief of staff of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych is in hospital after being shot, his spokesman says.

Ukraine issued an arrest warrant yesterday for its ousted pro-Russian president over “mass murder” and appealed for $35bn (€25bn) in Western aid as Moscow denounced Kiev’s new reformist interim government as “Kalashnikov-toting people in black masks.”

Russia has questioned the authority of Ukraine’s acting government, with prime minister Dmitry Medvedev saying the country’s acting authorities have come to power as a result of an ’armed mutiny’.

Ukraine's acting interior minister has said a warrant is out for the arrest of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.