The "Kyiv Post's" Christopher Miller reminds us that the military exercises that Moscow claimed were taking place near the Ukraine border were supposed to end today. So all those troops and military equipment will be leaving the border area, right?
"International Business Times" says Sergiy Zakharov, an artist reportedly responsible for unflattering depictions of separatist fighters on buildings in the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, was abducted on Wednesday by masked gunmen with "Donetsk People's Republic" badges. It quotes the Facebook page of a spokesman for the Murzilki art project, in which Zakharov was said to be a participant, citing neighbors' accounts of the four gunmen emerging from Zakharov's house, also taking his computer and other belongings.
Our Ukrainian Service reports that a court in the Russian region of Rostov formally ordered the five Ukrainian officers "suspected of war crimes" by Russian Investigative Committee to be held in custody during the investigation.
They are reportedly among the many soldiers that Ukrainian sources say are being held prisoner after fleeing across the border into Russia to escape an attack by pro-Russian fighters.
Keepers at the Moscow Zoo will also have to find substitute foods following the Kremlin-ordered "full embargo" on food imports from the European Union, United States, and other countries.
AFP quotes the zoo's animal handlers as saying the facility is heavily dependent on Dutch vegetables and Polish apples.
"Almost all the animals eat fruits and vegetables except for those who eat fish," said Moscow Zoo spokeswoman Anna Kachurovskaya.
"Those who eat fish are also in trouble because fish is also embargoed."
The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Kyiv in a "comment on the crashed cease-fire in Ukraine" of harboring plans to suspend a cease-fire in the 20-kilometer area around the MH17 crash site, and said the Ukrainian actions "cause anxiety."
There has been no confirmation from Ukrainian authorities of any interruption in the cease-fire in that area, despite fierce fighting elsewhere against pro-Russian separatists.
Yesterday an announcement by Kyiv suggested fighting could resume until the next phase of on-the-ground investigation into the Malaysian airliner's downing. But a subsequent statement said "the order of the President of Ukraine for a cease-fire in the area of the search operation is continuing."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed into law a parliamentary bill (approved on July 22) that raises the maximum age of reservists for military service by five to 10 years, depending on rank, the presidential website says.
The forensic team investigating MH17 victims' remains in the Netherlands has so far identified 23 people, AP reports, quoting the country's Justice Ministry. Those identified so far are 18 Dutch nationals, two Malaysians, a Briton, a Canadian, and a German.
From AP:
The United States is warning Russia that any further intervention in Ukraine would be viewed as "an invasion of Ukraine."
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power delivered the warning Friday at a Security Council meeting on Ukraine. It follows recent reports by the West and Ukraine's pro-Western government that accused Moscow of beefing up its military on the border, dispatching what NATO estimates is 20,000 troops to the frontier.
Power said if Moscow wants to send aid to pro-Russian separatists it should be delivered by neutral international organizations — not by Russians.
"Therefore any further unilateral intervention by Russia into Ukrainian territory, including one under the guise of providing humanitarian aid, would be completely unacceptable and deeply alarming — and it would be viewed as an invasion of Ukraine," she said.