During a rehearsal on Saturday for the Independence Day parade in Kiev, Ukraine, a soldier tries on part of a cartoon character’s costume.

A cease-fire brokered by Angela Merkel and François Hollande went into effect in Ukraine last night, the New York Times reports. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic, has announced that it would not apply to Debaltseve, one of the war in Ukraine's key battlefields.

Don't worry, Ukraine. Jared Leto's got this under control.

As a temporary government stands up in Kiev and all hell breaks loose with pro-Russian protesters in Crimea, the news is sounding grimmer and grimmer for Ukraine's Jewish minority.

The day after signing an accord meant to end violent protests in Ukraine, president Viktor Yanukovych has reportedly left Kiev, ceding control of the capital to the opposition. The parliament building is now guarded by masked anti-Yanukovych forces, and the public has entered the presidential compound, Mezhyhirya, outside the city.

As many as 35 people were killed in new clashes between police and anti-government protestors in Kiev, Ukraine, hours after a truce had calmed the bloodiest week in the city since the fall of the Soviet empire.

Kiev's Independence Square, the site of a bloody, fiery battle between riot police and anti-government protesters yesterday, is still smoldering.

The months-long standoff between Ukraine's strongarm pro-Russian president and opposition protesters in the streets of Kiev, the capital, has turned grisly in recent hours, with 18 deaths reported in clashes between police and the demonstrators. This gripping livestream is being broadcast from Kiev's main square:

The three members of feminist Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced today in Moscow to two years in jail after being found guilty of "hooliganism driven by religious hatred."