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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives at the White House ahead of Oval Office talks with President Donald Trump, a rare honor bestowed on a non-head of government. Newslook

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Trump, right, talks to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin as Vice President Pence listens at the Oval Office in the White House, May 10, 2017. Trump said the U.S. supports Ukraine, Klimkin told USA TODAY.(Photo: Embassy of Ukraine)

WASHINGTON Ukraine's foreign minister said he receivedassurances from President Trump and Vice President Pence of support from the United States, as Russia expands its influence in separatist-held eastern Ukraine.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Pavlo Klimkin said, "Without U.S. engagement, it's not possible to sort this out, because Russia has respect for the United States."

Klimkins visit to the White House Wednesday was overshadowed by Trumps meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Trump expressed his desire to work with Ukraine to peacefully resolve the conflict, theWhite House said in a statement.Pence emphasized that the negotiated cease-fire agreements remain the most viable path towardpeace."

"It was very important to hear," Klimkin said.Russia'sactions in eastern Ukraine are makingpeace harder to achieve, headded.

For example, Russian rubles must now be used as currency in the Donbas region, instead of Ukrainian hryvnas,for all transactions, including payingemployees ofUkrainian companies. That mandate, in place since March 1, required transferringlarge amounts of currency from Russia, which Klimkin said could not have happened without Russian approval and involvement.

In addition,Russian President Vladimir Putinissued a decree Feb. 18 recognizingpassports and other documents issued by the self-described Peoples Republic of Donetsk and Peoples Republic of Luhansk.

On March 17, separatist authoritiesseized private and Ukrainian state-owned factories and mines, he said. One result is that owners in Ukraine have no legal way to communicate with Ukrainian companies in the Donbas, Klimkin said. Commodities, such as coal and iron ore produced in the separatist-held areas, are being illegally transferred and sold in Russia, he said.

And, Klimkin said, Russian state-owned mediaand the separatist-held region also started talking about the nation of Donbas, which never existed.

Its not a random sequence of actions, hesaid. Its an intentional sequence to bring the occupied Donbas far, far away from Ukraine.

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Eastern Ukraine city in crosshairs of renewed fighting

At least 12 Ukrainian soldiers killed in disputed east

The fighting in eastern Ukraine, which started after demonstrators ousted a pro-Russian government in February 2014, has escalated in recent months, despite cease-fire agreements negotiated with Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in Minsk, Belarus. While Russia denies arming the separatists, Ukrainian, U.S. and other Western authorities have documented Russian military support and direct involvement in the conflict that has resulted in10,000 Ukrainian deaths.

The U.S. and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. Secretary of State Rex Tillersontold Lavrov on Wednesday that U.S. sanctions won't be lifted until Russia reverses its actions.

The Minsk agreement requires the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the restoration of Ukrainian law in the separatist-held regions. The deal also calls for Ukraine to establisha "special status" for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that includes self-governance andcross-border cooperation with Russia. While fighting continues, that special status provision will not be accepted or adopted by Ukraine,according to Oksana Syroid, deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.

Ukrainians"will not allow it," Syroid said last week in Washington. "It's against human dignity."

Klimkin said Russia maintains 6,000 military troops,2,000 tanks and other heavy weapons in the separatist-held area of Ukraine. Unless the recent changes are reversed, he warned that the situation there will become permanent.

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'US supports Ukraine' against Russia, Trump tells foreign minister - USA TODAY

KIEV Ukraine said on Thursday a visit to Russian-annexed Crimea by Bulgaria's Eurovision song contest entrant was apparently not illegal, avoiding a row that might have led to his disqualification and tainted the popular competition with fresh political controversy.

A video widely shared on social networks and in Ukrainian media appears to show Bulgarian Kristian Kostov singing at a concert on Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula in June 2014, three months after it was seized by Russia.

Ukraine has already barred Russia's contestant from entering the country because she had performed in Crimea without permission from Kiev after the annexation.

Forty-two countries are competing this year in Eurovision, an annual pageant of the colorful, the camp and the cheesy that in recent years has increasingly been drawn into politics. Ukraine's Jamala won last year with a song about war-time deportations of Crimean Tatars by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Kostov, who at 17 is the youngest competitor this year, was taking part in the second semi-final on Thursday with his song 'Beautiful Mess.' The final takes place in Kiev on Saturday in front of a television audience of millions.

Ukraine's border service said it and other state security agencies had not known about any visit by Kostov to Crimea when he entered Ukraine to take part in the competition. "We will study the information," spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said.

In a later statement, the border service said: "We do not currently have information from our sources or any other law enforcement agencies that he may have visited the occupied peninsula contrary to the legislation of this country."

It said Kostov would not have broken Ukrainian law if he visited Crimea as a minor and before legislation came into force banning foreigners from visiting the annexed territory without permission from Ukrainian authorities.

In a statement, the BulgarianEurovision delegation confirmed that Kostov had visited Crimea "for just a few hours" when he was 14 years old as part of a children's musical group.

There was no immediate comment from Eurovision organisers.

The annexation of Crimea contributed to a collapse in relations between Russia and Ukraine in 2014.

Russian singer Dima Bilan, who won Eurovision in 2008, urged his 1.9 million Instagram followers on Thursday to vote for Kostov. "He represents Bulgaria, but he is our hero!" he said in a post.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Additional reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko; Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

LOS ANGELES Fringed capes, pleated skirts and bolero hats peppered the runway at the Dior Cruise 2018 collection on Thursday as the luxury Parisian label spun its own twist on music festival fashion.

MEXICO CITY Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto wrote to Leonardo DiCaprio on Twitter on Thursday in a bid to reassure the Hollywood actor his government was taking steps to protect a rare porpoise in Mexican waters teetering on the brink of extinction.

GHENT, Belgium Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe, who turned 70 this month, says he has no intention of retiring as he continues to discover new nuances in the music of the composer who marked his career like no other: Johan Sebastian Bach.

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Ukraine says Crimea visit by Bulgaria's Eurovision singer not illegal - Reuters

Children in Ukraine are being given a chance to realise there are many cultures in the world. Photograph: Anna Voitenko

In February 2014, 100 people now known as the heavenly hundred were shot dead by riot police during protests in Independence Square, Kiev. The revolution of dignity began as an outcry against the then-president Viktor Yanukovychs rejection of a trade deal with the EU, but it quickly spiralled into violence. The revolution became symbolic of a shift that has turned Ukraine away from Russia and towards Europe.

The three years since then have been among the most difficult in the recent history of Ukraine, with Russian military aggression and enormous economic losses aggravated by corruption. The country needs reform and it needs solidarity with its neighbours more than ever.

Mustafa Nayem was at the heart of those protests, having posted the original call on Facebook for people to come to the square. Now an MP, he has launched a non-government initiative, GoGlobal, to improve Ukrainians English language skills, and GoCamp a series of residential camps where volunteers from all over the world come to Ukraine to teach children how to speak English.

Take 12-year-old Maksym, who joined GoCamp last summer having never seen a foreigner before in his life. He is from the town of Kostopil, 360km west of Ukraines capital Kiev, and was learning English at school but struggled to use it in conversation. After just three weeks at GoCamp, Maksym could chatter away quite happily with Eril, an Indonesian volunteer, while they played football.

GoCamp is as much about cultural awareness and exchange as learning a new language. Spanish volunteers cook paella with the children. Chinese volunteers make paper lanterns. Last year the British staged plays by Shakespeare. Meanwhile every volunteer lives with a host family, to learn more about daily life in Ukraine.

In summer 2017, GoGlobal is planning to bring 1,000 foreign volunteers to more than 600 schools, to teach 100,000 pupils all over the country. It is our aim that by 2020 all children aged 10 to 15 will speak English.

It doesn't matter where you're from or what language you speak: the kids are all happy studying and playing together

Volunteers not only work in big cities but also in small villages, where parents cannot afford to enrol their children in language courses. After spending three days in Kiev learning how to work with kids, volunteers set off for their camp destinations all over Ukraine. And along with this training, we encourage volunteers to share activities they enjoy. Camps focus on one of four areas: Steam (science, technology, engineering, art and maths); civic education; leadership and careers; sports and fitness. We want our volunteers to teach children how to become leaders, how to think critically and how to be tolerant and compassionate towards others.

GoCamp plays an even more important role for the children of families resettled after the conflict in the east of the country. Schools located close to the frontline take part in GoCamp East, which takes place between July and August, and brings children from the conflict zone to camps in Kiev. They are children of war and over the last three years, their lives have been lived to a background of shots and explosions. Almost all of them will have lost a relative.

We bring these children together with other kids from around Ukraine to show them that it does not matter where you are from, or what language you speak they are all happy studying and playing together. Were giving these children the chance to realise that there is another life in Ukraine that there are many cultures and that the world is global.

It is the next generation of Ukrainians who will have to overhaul the country. If we want to change the world, we have to inspire the kids.

Tetiana Kyrylenko is head of communications for GlobalOffice, which runs GoGlobal and GoCamp.

Talk to us on Twitter via @Gdnvoluntary and join our community for your free fortnightly Guardian Voluntary Sector newsletter, with analysis and opinion sent direct to you on the first and third Thursday of the month.

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Volunteering in Ukraine: 'If we want change, we have to inspire kids' - The Guardian

Loudspeakers blared bubblegum pop as latex-clad contestants rubbed glittered cheeks with fawning television hosts. Balloons bearing the participating countries' flags soared into the sky over this capital city's golden onion domes.

Around the same time, roughly 450 miles east, a more somber procession was taking place, as the bodies of three Ukrainian servicemen killed fighting Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine on May 1 were brought back to government-controlled territory.

Some 10,000 people, including 2,673 Ukrainian servicemen -- at least five since Eurovision preparations began last week -- have been killed in the conflict, now in its fourth year, according to the military.

Nothing suggests that an end is in sight for the fighting, which has affected pretty much everyone in the country in some way. And some Ukrainians are upset that attention is being diverted from the battlefields to observe a week-long festival of camp.

"It's absolute madness," said Alina Anatolyevna, a uniformed member of the Donbas battalion. "People desecrating sacred ground and behaving like a war isn't happening and people aren't dying -- this is not normal."

The sacred ground she was referring to is central Khreshchatyk Street and Independence Square. Today it's the site of the Eurovision Village, where visitors lounge atop beanbags and puff hookah. Three years ago it was where more than 100 Ukrainians died in clashes with the security forces of the former Moscow-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych. The uprising forced Yanukovych to flee and sparked Russia's annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine -- and set off the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

But it hasn't been completely glossed over. Amid the Eurovision Village and fan zones -- with their beer gardens and big screens, selfie stations and LED-lit stages erected to entertain the 20,000 foreign visitors expected to arrive for this week's competition -- stand billboard-sized photographs of wounded veteran Paralympians. And hundreds of uniformed Ukrainian servicemen help make up the 16,000-strong security force protecting the event.

It all strikes a jarring note in the otherwise celebratory atmosphere.

After Ukraine's Eurovision victory in 2016 won it the right to host the event this year, there was talk about relocating it because of the country's security situation. But Vilyen Pidgornyi, a Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman, told CNN that would have been a mistake. He sees Eurovision as "a demonstration of the West's trust in Ukraine" and an opportunity to unveil a reformed country that has endured continental Europe's deadliest conflict since the Balkan Wars in a bid to become "more European."

"People may ask, 'Why are we holding festivities when there are battles every day and people die?' Yes, but isn't this what the people die for?".

And Eurovision, often a microcosm of politics in Europe, has itself become a front in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The first shot came from Ukraine, with its 2016 winning entry, "1944," sung by Jamala, about Stalin's deportation of Crimea's Tatar population. It began: "When strangers are coming/They come to your house/They kill you all and say/We're not guilty, not guilty."

This year, Moscow fired back, choosing as its representative the wheelchair-bound Yulia Samoilova, likely knowing that her performance in annexed Crimea in 2015 would irk Kiev. Sure enough, shortly after she was selected, Ukraine's security service announced she would not be allowed in the country -- the first time a Eurovision host nation has taken such a step -- citing her violation of Ukrainian border laws.

As a result, Russia's main broadcaster, Channel One, pulled out of the contest, saying it would not broadcast the event this year.

That's fine with many Ukrainians, including Alina Kosse, whose cottage sits smack on the government side of the front line in war-ravaged Mariinka. Once a sleepy bedroom community, much of the town has been reduced to rubble by artillery fire from Russian-backed separatists. Not that she could watch the song contest anyway, as Ukraine's far eastern regions receive only Russian television.

"Personally, Eurovision doesn't matter when we're under attack every day," Kosse said. "Everything is empty and meaningless, as well as the war."

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Eurovision's glitzy pageant jars with pain of Ukraine conflict - CNN

The Associated Press has found that Ukrainian soldiers are being bombarded by text messages likely dispatched by cell site simulators. Some are crude threats, while others play on allegations that Ukraine's billionaire president, Petro Poroshenko, sometimes nicknamed Parasha, is lining his pockets as soldiers fight in the field. Several of the roughly four dozen messages collected by AP and other journalists and activists carried spelling mistakes typical of Russian speakers trying to write in Ukrainian. Others came from nonsensical numbers (such as 77777) or were sent at impossible times (such as the year 1995), hinting at electronic fakery. A few even tried to mimic payment alerts in a bid to trick soldiers into thinking their accounts were being emptied by their commanders.

Here are a few of the messages, which have been edited for clarity:

"Guys, Parasha sold us out to the Yanks. Let's go attack Kiev instead!"

text message received on Feb. 12, 2015, at Debaltseve, Ukraine.

"Your account was charged 10 hryvnias (then about $0.50) to support the Anti-Terrorism Operation."

text message received on Oct. 6, 2015, at Schastia, Ukraine.

"Are you ready to die for Poroshenko's golden deposits!?"

text message received at 12:58 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2015, at Checkpoint 29, an hour from Luhansk, Ukraine.

"Who is robbing your family while you are paid pennies waiting for your bullet?"

text message received at 11:46 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2015, at Checkpoint 29.

"Murderer from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The East won't forgive you and the West won't remember you!"

text message received on Nov. 17, 2015, at Checkpoint 29.

"Ukrainian Armed Forces, you're just meat for your commanders."

text message received at 9:32 a.m. on Jan. 31 in Avdiivka, Ukraine.

Online:

All the text messages collected by the AP and others have been gathered here: https://goo.gl/ap2O7C

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphaelsatter.com

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'You're just meat' - Ukrainian soldiers get chilling texts - ABC News