It is notable that Life News has expunged the pro-Kyiv views from an otherwise balanced Reuters video report from eastern Ukraine (which we ran below and here as "Donetsk Rebels Defiant, Population Divided As Offensive Draws Near").
The Life News version cuts away at the 1:15 mark, when a woman interrupts the Reuters interviewee calling President Petro Poroshenko "bloodthirsty" to defend him and the Ukrainian government. "You're not telling the truth," she interjects, arguing, "He has to protect his Ukraine. This is Ukrainian land. It's not true what you're saying."
Reuters:
And Life News:
The dropping value of the ruble and low demand for holiday packages have prompted the closure of several Russian tourism agencies in recent weeks. Speaking to Reuters on August 5 in Moscow, travel agents blamed the collapse on Russia's internal and external politics, citing the situation around Ukraine as one of the reasons.
CNN reports:
According to a NATO official, Russia now has about 20,000 troops stationed "in an area along the entire border with eastern Ukraine." The buildup nearly doubled the troop deployment in the last week by adding 8,000 more forces to 12,000 already there, the official said.
(That's around half the troop figure Kyiv has cited, btw.)
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says he has received information “in the last several hours” suggesting the threat of direct Russian military intervention in Ukraine is “higher than it was several days ago.”
With tens of thousands of Russian troops near Ukraine's border and fears mounting rapidly of a possible military move by Moscow, Reuters quotes a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman warns that Russia must avoid any action that would lead to further escalation of the crisis in Ukraine.
Reuters video of Donetsk rebels defiant amid the current government offensive to retake separatist-controlled areas in that region and Luhansk. The pro-Russian fighters vow to fight to the end.
New Levada Center poll shows a 20-year high in anti-Western sentiment among Russians, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. Some 74 percent of respondents regard relations with the United States as "mostly bad" or "very bad," compared with 60 percent vis-a-vis Europe.
Russians' views of Ukrainians are also suffering, with around 55 percent viewing them negatively. About two-thirds of respondents thought Ukrainian authorities were to blame for worsening relations, and just 8 percent thought the blame falls equally on both sides.