As warnings pour in from Kyiv, the Internation Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Washington, Moscow continues its determined insistence that "Russia has accommodated the wishes of Ukraine regarding the convoy’s route, cargo inspection and other details of the operation." This Foreign Ministry tweet simply links to its statement of yesterday, as @BBCDanielS noted:
After an explosion at a depth of more than 800 meters, a fire has been burning for around 24 hours at the Skakhtoupravleniye Pokrovskoye mine in Krasnoarmeisk, in the Donetsk region, according to Interfax and other media. There does not appear to have been any word yet on casualties.
This is unconfirmed, obviously, so treat accordingly. We haven't seen images of any "rest of convoy heading to Donbas":
:-))
As @StateOfUkraine points out, this photo appears to show license plates being placed, removed, or replaced on trucks in the Russian convoy.
Recall that despite warnings from Kyiv, a puzzling ITAR-TASS report quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggesting a simple change of license plates might be sufficient.
RFE/RL's Russian Service reports that the convoy is headed toward Belgorod:
That's only about 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, slightly north of Kharkiv:
Patrick Reevell of "The New York Times" offers a fascinating glimpse behind closed doors in leaked recordings of Russian football executives fretting over international reaction as they debate swallowing up three Crimean soccer teams. Former Prime Minister and cabinet hired hand is heard saying, "We're in checkmate."
A leaked recording of a meeting of Russia’s top soccer executives appears to show them panicked at the possibility that their clubs might be ejected from major European competitions and Russia might be stripped of the 2018 World Cup as they discuss a vote to admit three clubs from Crimea into the Russian league.
In the recording, the executives, who control Russia’s top clubs, recoil from taking a step that might invite more Western sanctions or displease Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin. On the tape, they resolve to seek guidance from Putin, in apparent violation of strict FIFA rules that national soccer associations be free from political influence.
Interfax reports that Russian Prime Minister Medvedev has signed a decree to establish a Crimea Federal University within the Russian federal system, named after Vladimir Vernadsky, a 19th- and 20th-century geochemist and former Stalin Prize winner who was a founder of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences. Vernadsky was also a driving force behind the Eurasianist movement.