Information Telegraph Agency of Russia

Three-day mourning was declared in the Ukrainian city of Odessa after Friday's riots, which took 41 lives and injured nearly 200 people.

"May 3, 4 and 5 are declared mourning days," the city council has announced in a statement on its website.

Ukraine is expected to propose that Russia be excluded from the Black Sea Naval Force (BLACKSEAFOR) at a high-level sitting of experts to be held in Bulgaria.

The step was announced by a source familiar with military and diplomatic affairs in Moscow, according to reports of ITAR-TASS and the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

Japan has decided to impose additional sanctions on Russian officials in connection to the situation in Ukraine.

After suspending consultations with Russia over softening visa regimes in March, now the Asian country has decided to ban 23 Russian officials from entering its territory, ITAR-TASS reported. The list of names will be made public later.

The mayor of Kharkiv Gennady Kernes, who was shot and wounded on Monday, has been moved to Israel for treatment.

Kernes was transported to Israel overnight, after Kharkiv medics had performed a 2-hour operation in the intensive care, ITAR-TASS reported, citing the spokesperson of the Kharkiv city council. His condition remains critical.

The suspension of the South Stream gas pipeline is not being discussed, according to Dominique Ristori, Director-General of Directorate-General Energy of the European Commission.

A mass demonstration in support of the autonomy of France's Brittany was held in the city of Nantes.

The main demand of the protesters is to restore the historical borders of the province and to grant it greater political independence, according to ITAR-TASS.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Moscow’s demand to Ukraine to settle the gas debts has no connection to the political processes in the country.

Russia’s demand to settle the overdue payments “is not at all connected to the elections in Ukraine on May 25,” Putin said, cited by Itar-Tass.

Crimean Parliament adopted the new constitution of the republic at an extraordinary session in the Crimean capital city, Friday.

All 88 deputies present in the auditorium voted in favor of the constitution, Interfax reports. In total, there are 100 deputies in the State Council of the Crimea.

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin ratified on Wednesday the Russian-Serbian agreement on the status of military cemeteries, which created the legal basis for the maintenance of Russian military cemeteries, monuments and memorials in the territory of Serbia, the Kremlin website released.

Leader of radical right-wing party to run in elections

KIEV -- Ukraine’s Central Election Commission has officially registered leader of the radical right-wing group Right Sector Dmitry Yarosh as a presidential candidate.

Ukraine will hold presidential elections on May 25.