Dramatic pictures show security guards, believed to be Cossack irregulars, dragging the women who had 'stop Putin's war' written across their chests away from the Autonomous Republic building in Simferopol.Femen released a statement on their website saying their members had been "severely beaten" by "pro-Russian activists" and arrested. Video footage has also emerged showing the women being carried away by security guards before being put into a police van. Their demonstration comes after MPs in the Ukrainian region voted to join Russia and announced a referendum on the status of Crimea will >>>

The de facto authorities in Crimea have announced that they consider the territory to be part of Russia after a swift vote in the local parliament.The MPs said on Thursday morning that a referendum planned for 30 March – which was due to ask voters if they wanted more autonomy from Kyiv – would now take place on 16 March, ask whether they wanted to join Russia, and only be a ratification of a decision that had already been taken.The parliament also appealed to Moscow to assist its decision to seek union with Russia.The bombshell announcement coincided with an emergency EU summit in Brussels >>>

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops said to be 16,000 strong tightened their stranglehold on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula Monday, openly defying the U.S. and the European Union and rattling world capitals and stock markets. The West struggled to find a way to get Russia to back down, but with little beyond already threatened diplomatic and economic sanctions, global markets fell sharply over the prospect of violent upheaval in the heart of Europe. For its part, Moscow reiterated its price for ending the crisis: restoration of a deal reached with the opposition less than two weeks ago to form a national >>>

The final three films I saw at the 2014 True/False Film Festival all deal with images of women—images created by themselves, through media outlets, and even using such images as key evidence in court cases. Kitty Green's Ukraine Is Not a Brothel examines the exhibitionist feminist group Femen, whose members often go topless and paint messages on their bodies in protest of sex trafficking and sexist politics. Green's approach is to probe within the movement, interviewing women like Sasha or Inna (the film only identifies them by first name), who explain their devotion >>>

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia issued an ultimatum Monday, demanding that the crew of two Ukrainian warships in Crimea immediately surrender or be stormed and seized, a Ukrainian military spokesman said. Four Russian navy ships in Sevastopol harbor were blocking the Ukrainian anti-submarine warship Ternopil and the command ship Slavutych from leaving the dock, waiting for their commanders responses, spokesman Maksim Prauta said. Vladimir Anikin, a Russian defense ministry spokesman in Moscow, dismissed the report of a Russian >>>

Anna Hutsol, left and DJ Hell, right, at “Ukraine is not a brothel” Femen protest against sex tourism and prostitution in 2009 in Kyiv, Ukraine (photo, Femen Women’s Movement, Flickr/Wikipedia)ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Anna Hutsol, co-founder and president of Femen, is at a centre for people requesting asylum in Switzerland. She has been at the Rapperswil centre for a month, she told RTS public broadcasting 1 March.Femen is the group of feminist political activists in Ukraine who came to fame initially for baring their breasts in public.RTS published the information as AP and other agencies >>>

"Women have been especially active in work related to [the] provision of medical services, food preparation and distribution, and information- gathering and dissemination," she said. "Women have also ‘manned,’ so to speak, the barricades in Kyiv, and women have organized themselves into self-defense units in [the Ukrainian cities of] Kyiv and Ternopil." Phillips estimates that almost one-half (47 percent) of Maidan protesters have been women, who are also using social media to promote their cause, including a Facebook group called “Half of the Maidan: Women’s Voice of Protest.” "In >>>

This story is part of True/False Conversations, a series of in-depth interviews with the filmmakers of this year’s True/False Festival.  Find the rest of them here or download the podcast on iTunes. “Ukraine is Not a Brothel” gives an intimate look at the world’s most controversial feminist movement.  Femen created a media frenzy in Europe as its members spoke out against patriarchy by way of topless demonstrations -- writing protest messages on their bare chests. As the movement gets larger, Femen's activists learn they must face the dark forces >>>

Oleksander Turchinov, the acting president, was to meet law enforcement agencies yesterday to discuss what he described as "dangerous signs of separatism" in some regions of the vast country following the overthrowing of the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.Some members of parliament warned that Ukraine could be split because Yanukovych had support in Russian-speaking regions in the east and south.Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Ukraine must not be forced to choose between close ties with Russia or the West."It is dangerous and counterproductive to try to force upon Ukraine >>>

Activists from the radical feminist group Femen have staged a topless demonstration against Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in Paris. Three "sextremists" - as Femen calls its members - took off their tops at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in the French capital. The women exposed the slogan "Ukraine is not Free", "Putin's new Puppet" and "Yanukovich = Tymoshenko" emblazoned across their naked chests. The three activist sported Tymoshenko's trademark blond hair braids tied to form a slipknot. In a November interview with IBTimes UK, Femen leader and Ukrainian native Inna >>>