This ends our live blogging for May 26. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Report on Russia's consular visit to detained Russian suspects:
Russia's consul in Kyiv has visited two suspected Russian soldiers who were captured in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Embassy spokesman Oleg Grishin said on May 27 that Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov "feel well."
The two men, who are being treated at a Kyiv hospital, have been charged with involvement in "terrorist activity."
In a video published on May 22, they repeated assertions that they were on active duty with the Russian military in eastern Ukraine when they were captured on May 16.
Moscow says Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov were no longer employed by the state when they were captured.
Russia denies accusations by Kyiv and the West that it is providing weapons, training, and personnel to rebels in eastern Ukraine who are involved in a conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014. (TASS, Interfax)
Moscow has put an end to the long-delayed warship deal with France:
Russia says it is terminating a 1.4 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) deal for two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships from France.
In September 2014, French President Francois Hollande announced that the two warships would not be delivered due to Russia's "recent actions in Ukraine."
Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency quoted Oleg Bochkaryov, the deputy head of the Military-Industrial Commission, as saying on May 26, "Russia won't take them, that's an accomplished fact."
"Now there is only one discussion -- about the sum of money that should be returned to Russia," he added.
Bochkaryov said Russia planned to construct its own similar vessels, not copy the Mistral, adding that Moscow had a "slightly different ideology for the endeavor of amphibious assault."
Earlier this month, the Kremlin said France had made a formal proposal to scrap the deal. (TASS and dpa)
Comrat, Moldova — There are few issues more contentious in Ukraine than the possibility of "federalizing" its rebellious eastern provinces into autonomous republics.
The government in Kiev sees changing the status of Luhansk and Donetsk as a way for rebels to free themselves from greater Ukraine. The rebels view it as a leash preventing them from achieving the full independence and alignment with Russia that they crave.
What often goes unmentioned is the rough example of such a region just next door. Just across Ukraine's southwestern border in Moldova lies Gagauzia, a semi-autonomous, poor, agricultural region whose profile could rise as tensions in the region deepen.