February 26, 2014 (Wednesday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- 2014 Ukrainian revolution, 2014 Crimean crisis:
- Ukraine's interim President Oleksandr Turchynov formally becomes the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. (Ministry of Defence)
- Ukraine's acting interior minister Arsen Avakov says the elite Berkut police unit, blamed for the deaths of protesters, has been disbanded. (CNN)
- The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, orders snap military exercises near the Ukraine border. (Washington Post)
- Syrian Civil War:
Law and crime
- Post-coup unrest in Egypt:
- An Egyptian court sentences 26 people to death in absentia for plotting attacks on ships passing through the Suez Canal. (NBC News)
- Kevin Lau Chun-to, the former editor of newspaper Ming Pao whose dismissal in January sparked protests over press freedom, is attacked by a man with a meat cleaver in his Hong Kong neighborhood. He is in critical condition. (CNN)
- The two men convicted of the murder of Lee Rigby are sentenced to life imprisonment, Michael Adebolajo without the possibility of parole, and Michael Adebowale with the possibility of parole after 45 years. (BBC News)