TODAY: Ukraine ceasefire under threat; Obama hits out at Kremlin in UN speech; Crimean Tartars under pressure. Yevtushenkov appeal subject to delay; Bashneft will not sell UPC stake to Sistema; gloomy economic forecasts; FSB surveillance methods under scrutiny in Strasbourg; another plaudit for the President.

Reports have emerged of mortar fire striking an apartment block in the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, indicating that the ceasefire may be compromised.  The Investigative Committee has pledged it will undertake an enquiry into reports of a mass grave discovered near the city.  In a speech to the UN general assembly, U.S. President Barack Obama used tough rhetoric against the Kremlin’s ‘vision of the world‘, in which ‘civilised people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed‘.  At the same assembly Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged Western countries to uphold sanctions against Russia until all Ukrainian territory has been restored to Kiev’s control.  Ukraine’s President hopes that the state can apply for EU membership in six years.  It has been reported that the Mejlis, the principle representational organisation of Crimea’s minority Tatars, has been ousted from its office.  Crimean Affairs Minister Oleg Savelyev has warned that problems of power and water shortages loom large in the newly absorbed state.  The Kremlin is apparently mulling a $200 million project to bolster the number of Russian speakers in other former Soviet states.