Ban Ki-moon spokesman Stephane Dujarric speaking July 1 in New York:
"The secretary-general is following with grave concern reports of renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine. He is extremely disappointed that the unilateral cease-fire declared by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko never achieved the momentum needed to end the violence."
RFE's Ukrainian Service reports that Moscow's Basmanny Court has ordered the arrest in absentia of the head of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, Ihor Kolomoyskiy.
Russia's Investigative Committee claims that Kolomoyskiy was involved in "the organization of such crimes as murder, use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, hindering the work of journalists, and kidnappings."
Kolomoyskiy, an oligarch who accepted the Dnipr post in March, has supported Ukrainian army units involved in antiterrorist operations and has called for the formation of volunteer self-defense battalions.
The court said investigators are due to authorize law-enforcement authorities to establish Kolomoyskiy's location and take him into custody. They are also pursuing similar arrest warrants for Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and battalion commander Serhiy Melnychuk.
Kolomoyskiy, angered by the Russian annexation of Crimea, has in the past referred to Vladimir Putin as a "short schizophrenic." He has also referred to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych as a "tall schizophrenic."
Is this a war for Donbas or all Ukraine? Listen in as RFE's Ukrainian Service talks LIVE to ex-President Leonid Kravchuk.
UNIAN news agency is citing an unnamed government source as saying the minister of economic development and trade, Pavlo Sheremeta, has resigned.
Bohdan Danylyshyn, who served in the post from 2007-2010, has been tapped as his possible successor.
The Crimean Tatar parliament, or Mejlis, will hold its next formal session outside Crimea, in order to allow its traditional figurehead, Mustafa Dzhemilev, to attend.
Dzhemilev, a Soviet-era dissident and former Mejlis chairman, fiercely opposed Russia's forced annexation of Crimea. In response, Russia authorities have banned the 70-year-ol d Crimea Tatar leader from entering the territory for a five-year period.
The date of the session has yet to be announced, but it is believed the meeting will be held in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and will focus on fall elections to Crimean local councils.
During its last session June 12, the Mejlis decided to boycott the September 14 elections to the Russian-backed Crimean parliament in favor of holding its own elections the same day.
Who needs McDonald's when you've got RusBurger?
Bloomberg is reporting that the Russian hamburger chain is set to open its first restaurant in Crimea, three months after McDonald's pulled out from the territory. Main offerings are a Czar cheeseburger, a Bogatyr sandwich, and local pear lemonade.
"Consumers are tired of tastelessness and are missing the taste of Russia," RusBurger says on its website. "Ours is better."
Crimea as seen from the ISS.
Slon.ru is reporting that the publisher of the Ukrainian edition of "Forbes" magazine says he has been banned from entering Ukraine for three years.
Yuriy Rovensky, who chairs Ukraine's powerful UMH publishing company, said he was informed of the decision when border guards blocked his attempt to enter the country. He is currently located in Moscow and says he will continue to run his publications from there. (In addition to "Forbes," UMH distributes "Vogue," "Reporter," "Telenedelya," Argumenty i Fakty," and "Komsomolskaya pravda" in Ukraine.)
The former owner of "Forbes," oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, fled Ukraine after it was revealed that he had stolen as much as $1 billion from state coffers on behalf of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. (Miguel Forbes, who oversaw the "Forbes" publishing empire on behalf of his family, was forced to leave his job after it became clear he had negotiated Kurchenko's takeover bid of the Ukrainian edition, which had itself reported on his alleged corruption.)
BBC Russian Service reporting 35 percent fewer tourists in Crimea this year.
Ukrainian forces say they detained a top pro-Russian separatist leader from the eastern Donetsk region on July 1. Video distributed by Ukraine's SBU state security service shows soldiers arresting a man identified as the self-proclaimed mayor of the town of Horlivka, Volodymyr Kolosnyuk, in Berdyansk near Zaporizhzhya. NOTE: There is no audio on this video. (Reuters)