Largely as told by Michael McFaul:
That concludes our live blogging for Monday, August 4.
A Dutch plane carrying remains of more victims of the MH17 airliner tragedy has touched down in the Netherlands. The plane was also carrying personal belongings of some of the 298 passengers and crew who died that Ukrainian officials said had been kept in the rebel-held city of Donetsk for some time.
Interfax and other news outlets report that the head of PR for the separatist "Donetsk People's Republic" was arrested today as she tried to travel to "the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea," according to the Ukrainian National Security Service.
Olena Volodymyrivna Blokha was arrested yesterday on terrorism charges and taken to the capital, Kyiv.
Interfax also reports that a Ukrainian Cossack leader, Vladimir Mukhtarov, was arrested in Luhansk under similar terrorism legislation.
Sanctions bite...or a convenient fig leaf for LUKoil to get out of a few markets? From our newsroom:
Russia's second-largest oil producer LUKoil said on August 4 it was selling its filling stations in three central European nations.
LUKoil said in a statement it was selling its gas stations in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia as part of an "optimization" plan.
The decision came just days after Lukoil's chief executive, Vagit Alekperov, said the company will likely be forced to trim its investment program as a result of Western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
The European Union and the U.S. have so far refrained from imposing sanctions on LUKoil, but their latest rounds of sanctions shut Russia's state-owned banks out of Western capital markets, in turn limiting Russian companies' access to financing both at home and abroad.
LUKoil had earlier announced it is pulling out of Ukraine.
Based on reporting by Reuters, ITAR-TASS, The Moscow Times
Iggy Ostanin has written an insightful piece for "The Interpreter" on loose cannon and pro-Russian commander Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov). Here's an excerpt:
Even though the origins of Strelkov’s role in the Ukrainian conflict remain uncertain, and it is without question that he worked for Russia’s GRU, it is also clear that he is a sincere believer in the reactionary ideology of the pro-Russian uprising. And despite the media portrayals of Strelkov as Putin’s envoy, his loyalty to the current Russian administration is doubtful. He is critical of Russia’s Minister of Defence, Sergey Shoigu, whom he claims is both a “thief” and never “served a day in the armed forces.” Strelkov describes Putin’s policies as the “typical politics of a Latin American dictator, who isn’t willing to step aside once he gets to power,” and suggests that he would only be willing to support Putin “if he made a major change of course,” that is to say if he distanced Russia from any Western ideas of a liberal democracy.
The battle for eastern Ukrainian hearts and minds continues.