The Russian national football team recognized its opponents for the 2016 European Championship qualifying tournament. According to the results of the draw, the Russians were placed in Group G, which also included teams from Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Moldova and Liechtenstein. The draw, broadcast live on the official UEFA website, took place on February 23 in Nice.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Sunday, February 23, decided to transfer the powers of the President to the Speaker of Parliament Alexander Turchynov. This was reported by the press service of the parliament. According to the UNIAN agency, 285 out of 339 people's deputies present at the Rada meeting voted for this decision.

The WhatsApp messenger experienced a glitch on Saturday, February 22, reports the Associated Press . WhatsApp, which has about 450 million active users, was unavailable to users around the world for about 2.5 hours. A message appeared on the official WhatsApp Twitter account about certain “server problems,” which the messenger’s technical service promised to fix as soon as possible.

In Kerch on the afternoon of February 23, a rally of pro-Russian forces took place, the participants of which demanded the secession of Crimea from Ukraine and raised the Russian flag over the city hall building. This was reported by the Kerch.FM portal.

Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine propose to temporarily suspend the broadcast and rebroadcast of television and radio programs produced in states that have not signed the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. The corresponding bill , according to the Rada website, was introduced on February 22 by deputies of the Svoboda faction. According to the authors of the bill, the broadcasting of such TV channels should be limited for the sake of the country’s information security.

On Saturday, February 22, a monument to a Soviet soldier was demolished in Stryi (a regional center in the Lviv region of Ukraine). This is reported by the local website Stryi.com.ua . The sculpture depicting a soldier holding a child was dismantled using a truck crane. Then, according to the source, she was taken to the territory of a local utility plant. According to Lviv24.at.ua , the city council did not authorize the demolition of the monument.

Three months after the start of student rallies in support of European integration, the government in Ukraine changed. President Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kyiv to Kharkov, from where he announced a “coup d’etat”; People entered his personal residence “Mezhyhirya”. The opposition, strengthened by former members of the Party of Regions, received a constitutional majority in the Rada, removed Yanukovych from power and appointed a temporary head of state - Alexander Turchynov.

In Ukraine, the law “On State Language Policy”, which made it possible to give official status to Russian and other non-state languages ​​on the territory of the republic, has been repealed. The Verkhovna Rada made a corresponding decision . for the repeal of the law. 232 deputies out of 450 voted The decision was supported by the majority of deputies from the opposition factions “Batkivshchyna” and UDAR; the nationalist faction “Svoboda” voted for it in its entirety.

Police in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo detained several dozen protesters against the 2014 FIFA World Cup in the country, Agence France-Presse reported on Saturday, February 22. According to local media reports cited by ITAR-TASS , we are talking about at least 120 detainees. The demonstration, which attracted about a thousand participants, was peaceful at first, but after a number of protesters tried to build a barricade, clashes began between demonstrators and police.

The closing ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games began in Sochi. The ceremony will be broadcast live by the Rossiya 1 TV channel. Related materials: Closing of the Olympics in Sochi Text broadcast of the closing of the most successful Olympic Games in Russian history on February 23, 2014 The closing ceremony began at 20:14 Moscow time. It is held at the Fisht stadium. Details about the event were not announced.

The parliamentary official newspaper "Voice of Ukraine" published a law on returning to the 2004 constitution, restoring the parliamentary-presidential form of the republic. reports that ITAR-TASS Rada deputy Petro Poroshenko announced this late in the evening of February 22, speaking on Independence Square in Kiev. Since its publication in the Voice of Ukraine, the law on returning to the 2004 constitution is considered to have entered into force.

Day of Victory How Kiev met Yulia Tymoshenko: Lenta.ru report Supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters Three months after the start of student rallies in support of European integration, the government in Ukraine changed. President Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kyiv to Kharkov, from where he announced a “coup d’etat”; People entered his personal residence “Mezhyhirya”.

In Kyiv on Sunday, February 23, they plan to demolish the monument to the security officers. reports this Gazeta.ua . The action, according to the publication, is organized by certain “public figures.” “These executioners who killed our heroes in the last century must fall into oblivion,” the activists said.

Residents of Ivano-Frankivsk on Saturday, February 22, visited the residence of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in the village of Guta. According to Blitz-Info, the head of its security gave visitors a tour of the residence. The photographs published by the publication show that several dozen people took part in the walk around the Sinegora presidential residence. At the entrance to the estate, the convoy was stopped by a guard who called his boss.

A policeman driving a Volvo crashed into six cars waiting for a green traffic light in southwest Moscow. agency was told about this The Interfax by the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Moscow on the evening of Sunday, February 23. The accident occurred on Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard. According to preliminary data, the police officer for the South-Western District was sober, but lost control on the slippery road.