Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Wednesday urged parliament to approve a new government next week that could end a raging political crisis and unlock crucial Western aid.

The economically-depressed and conflict-riven country has been roiled by weeks of uncertainty over its future and a sharp drop in the popularity of both Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko has been branded by Moscow as a murderer but is viewed by many in her Western-friendly country as a symbol of doughty resistance to Russian aggression.

The 34-year-old army helicopter navigator has most prominently featured on global TV screens giving the one-finger salute to the southern Russian judge who found her guilty of complicity in the killing of two Moscow state television journalists.

A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko to 22 years in prison over the killing of two Russian journalists in a ruling set to fuel Moscow's feud with Kiev and the West.

Judge Leonid Stepanenko found the 34-year-old combat helicopter navigator guilty of involvement in the fatal 2014 shelling of the Russian state TV reporters in east Ukraine, in a widely-expected verdict.

Nadiya Savchenko is both lionized as a fearless Ukrainian freedom fighter -- and demonized as the alleged accomplice in the murder of two Russian reporters in her country's separatist east.

The 34-year-old Ukrainian army pilot has most recently featured on global TV screens wearing patriotic T-shirts inside the glass cage of a Russian courtroom, where she faces 23 years behind bars.

It took two days and a giant crane, but Ukraine on Thursday finally managed to lift its biggest remaining statue of Soviet founder Lenin off its pedestal and consign it to the dustbins of history.

The 20-meter-tall (65-foot-tall) bronze and granite monument fell victim to a Ukrainian ban on Soviet symbols that was imposed in May 2015 as part of the Russian neighbor’s drive toward closer relations with the European Union.

Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine's separatist Donetsk province on Wednesday began issuing their own passports in a bid to reassert their independence from the Western-backed government in Kiev.

The red documents are similar in appearance to Russian passports and are issued by the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic -- a region whose independence has not even been recognized by Moscow.

Hunger-striking Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, on trial in Russia over the murder of two journalists, is feeling "a lot better" since she resumed drinking water, her lawyer said after visiting her in detention.

Savchenko began taking fluids again on Thursday after refusing both food and water for around a week in protest at delays in her controversial trial that has drawn criticism from Kiev and the West.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes between government forces and pro-Russian rebels over the past 24 hours, a military spokesman in Kiev said Saturday.

The latest casualties came after talks to resolve the nearly two-year conflict floundered in Paris last week, with Moscow and Kiev saying they could not agree on polls in the rebel-held east.

Ukraine said Friday it had asked German doctors to check on the health of Nadiya Savchenko, who has agreed to drink water but is still not eating in protest at her Russian trial.

Savchenko, a 34-year-old Ukrainian combat pilot, denies charges of being involved in the June 2014 killing of two Russian state television journalists in the separatist east of the former Soviet state.

A group of Ukrainians with scarves covering their faces on Wednesday threw smoke bombs and fireworks at the Russian mission in the western city of Lviv, while a local lawmaker tore down the Russian flag.

The cultural capital of Ukraine was one of several cities staging protests against the trial in Russia of Nadiya Savchenko, a military pilot accused of being involved in the killing of two Russian reporters during the Ukraine conflict.