LB.ua chronicles the latest events in Ukraine in English for foreign readers.
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9:10. Euromaidan activists have established checkpoint in New Petrivtsi village on the turn off the main road in the direction of the entrance to Viktor Yanukovich's 'Mezhigorie'. At this bend the road is blocked by three trucks, police, traffic policemen and 'Berkut' special forces fighters.
9:51. The opposition factions deputies have blocked the rostrum and presidium of the Verkhovna Rada.
The Party of Regions lawmaker Vadym Kolesnichenko called on the the protesters to support the adoption of the state budget for 2014.
10:25. The Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak opened a parliament being surrounded by a few opposition lawmakers. After that the speaker said that his office continues consultations on unblocking of the parliament and suspended the parliamentary session until 16:00.
11:30. Lawmaker Anatoly Gritsenko announced his exit from the opposition faction 'Batkivshchyna' in the Verkhovna Rada. He promised in the status of individual deputy to remain in opposition to President Viktor Yanukovich and his policies, perform 'Batkivshchyna' electoral program, and coordinate his actions with the opposition lawmakers.
Gritsenko has repeatedly criticized the leadership of the faction, in particular its leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
12:44. The opposition faction 'Batkivshchyna' expects lawmaker Anatoly Gritsenko, who announced his exit from the faction earlier this day, to relinquish his deputy powers.
'After this summit Ukraine will not be as it was, Ukrainian people won't be the same. Indeed, we have lost the current leadership of Ukraine, but we got Ukrainian people, we got their fight for the future', said Grybauskaite at a press conference on Tuesday in Strasbourg, speaking on the results of the Eastern Partnership Summit, which was held in Vilnius on November 28-29.
She also added, that 'the political will of Ukrainian people and our governments in Europe will depend on help of the country that wants to move closer to the EU'.
14:10. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has opened a hotline for citizens about the prospects of signing an Association Agreement with the European Union and the liberalization of the visa regime for entry into the EU.
14:23. The opposition under no circumstances will vote for the state budget of Ukraine for 2014, said the 'Svoboda' faction leader Oleg Tyagnibok. He believes that there should be 'a full restart the government', followed by the presidential and parliamentary elections.
'If those people on whom now depends the solution of this problem do not understand, they will bring the situation to the civil war. They will be responsible for what might happen in the Ukrainian state', he stressed.
14:50. Mayor of Kharkov Gennady Kernes says he's not afraid of U.S. sanctions, because he's not going to leave the city and his country.
'When they (the opposition - ed.) call on U.S. or Europe to impose some kind of sanctions, there are special rules of international law, and if they do not know these rules and constantly boast of their impunity, and are doing what they are doing, I think that there should be certain sanctions in regard to them...', he said.
On January 12 All-Ukrainian Union 'Maidan' asked U.S. Senate to impose sanctions against a number of Ukrainian officials, in particular - Kharkov mayor Gennady Kernes and Head of Kharkov Regional Administration Mikhail Dobkin.
15:12. The Verkhovna Rada deputy from the opposition 'Batkivshchyna' faction Andriy Shevchenko believes that if a member of parliament Anatoly Gritsenko leaves the party, it will weaken both the fraction and the deputy.
15:22. Video of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko taking a hit by riot police last Friday, January 10.
15:35. The European Union must not renounce obligations to Ukraine and other neighbouring countries that want freedom, said President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso at the European Parliament session in Strasbourg.
15:38. Opponents of the Customs Union in Ukraine are people who are very far from the economy. Many of them are guided by political myths, and some work for the money from sponsors, said Russian Presidential Aide Sergei Glazyev
16:14. The opposition factions lawmakers continue blocking the rostrum and presidium of the Verkhovna Rada.
16:23. Ukraine's economy has been considered the least free in Europe in the ranking of free economies complied by the Heritage Foundation, ranking 155 out of 178 and once again showing the worst result among the European countries.
17:35. Heads of diplomatic missions in Ukraine visited former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko in the hospital, where he's been staying since January 11, when he had taken a hit by 'Berkut' riot police in a crackdown on Euromaidan activists under Kyiv Svyatoshinsky court.
In particular U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, Ambassador Yang Tombinsky European Union, as well as the ambassadors of Germany and Sweden Christoph Weil and Andreas von Bekerat payed visit to Lutsenko.
19:09. The Interior Ministry has stopped looking for one of the missing Euromaidan activists due to the fact that a person with these personal data does not exist.
19:22. Dneprodzerzhinsky human rights activist Vitaly Kupriy filed a complaint about a criminal offense by a judge of the Supreme Administrative Court Alexander Vedenyapin, who refused to begin the trial of President Viktor Yanukovich.
19:55. Vice-President of the European People's Party and a member of the European Parliament Jacek Saryusz-Wolski strongly condemned the beating of the 'Third Ukrainian republic' movement head Yuriy Lutsenko, which took place during clashes between protesters and 'Berkut' riot police on January 10.
22:21. Shevchenkyvskyi district police department released the detained 17-year-old Euromaidan guard Nazariy Lyudkevych. Tomorrow a court will hear his case.
Read next: Ukrainian crisis: January 15