AFP report about the UN saying one of its staff members has been captured in eastern Ukraine:
The United Nations said Wednesday that one of its staff members had been captured by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's separatist east.
The UN is carrying out a humanitarian mission in the war-torn republics of Lugansk and Donetsk.
The world body's office in Kiev said it had mobilised all channels to ensure its unnamed staff member's immediate and unconditional release.
"The United Nations is deeply concerned about the fact that one of its staff members is being held captive in Donetsk," the United Nations said in a statement.
It added that is was aware that "the staff is well treated" but provided no details about the person's nationality or when and under what circumstances the capture occurred.
Nearly 9,200 people have died and more than 1.5 million driven from their homes since a pro-Moscow revolt broke out in the former Soviet republic's industrial heartland in April 2014.
A series of periodic truce deals in 2015 have abated some of the violence, which Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of stirring and backing, a charge that Russia denies.
On Sunday, the European Union criticised the "unprecedented level of violence" in eastern Ukraine after international peace monitors came under fire.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said Saturday that several monitors carrying out an observation mission had come under fire 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the insurgents' de facto capital Donetsk.
In a separate incident Thursday, an OSCE monitor was threatened at gunpoint by a rebel, forcing the patrol to leave a checkpoint they intended to pass, the group said.
The Last Days Of A Ukrainian Soldier
Description: Dmytro Hodzenko was killed one day before he was due to be discharged from service in the Ukrainian army. He was on the front line to the very end. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and 24 Channel)
Avdiyivka: Eastern Ukraine's Latest Flash Point
Avdiyivka: Eastern Ukraine's Latest Flashpoint
The shaky cease-fire between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops appears to have fallen apart around the small industrial town of Avdiyivka. In recent weeks, battles have erupted around the strategically important crossroads in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. European observers have reported the “highest level of cease-fire violations” since September 2015, with deaths reported on both sides. On April 2, photographer Maxim Tucker entered the area and spent a week documenting villages shattered by a conflict which is now entering its third year.
Barring any major developments, that ends the live blogging for tonight.
From our Brussels correspondent on visa liberalization:
BRUSSELS -- EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn says the European Commission plans to go ahead with its proposal for visa liberalization for Ukraine -- despite a Dutch referendum last week that rejected Ukraine’s Association Agreement with Kyiv.
Hahn told RFE/RL on April 12 that it would be “unfair” not to go ahead with visa liberalization for Ukraine because Brussels has “always asked certain conditions” from Kyiv.
Hahn told RFE/RL: “We have worked on this issue for some years. We have always argued that we are following a certain methodology. They have accepted it. They have delivered. Now I think it is a question of fairness to fulfill what we have promised.”
Sources in Brussels say the visa liberalization proposal for Ukraine is likely to come by the end of April and will allay fears in Kyiv that the nonbinding Dutch referendum will slow down the establishment of visa-free rules for Ukrainian citizens.
But it remains unclear when EU member states and the European Parliament would vote on the proposal.
The EU's 27 other members have ratified Ukraine’s EU Association Agreement and it went into effect in January.