RFE's Crimea Desk reports that the head of the Moscow-backed Republic of Crimea will be selected from a list of three candidates submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The speaker of the pro-Russian parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, said lawmakers will have five days to consider the list before voting for a final candidate.
At least one of the candidates is expected to be the current head of the republic, Sergei Aksyonov.
From our news desk:
-- Moscow's Basman District Court has charged Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov in abstentia with involvement in murders and other crimes.
Judge Natalya Mushnikova ruled on July 9 that Avakov must be held in pretrial detention for two months if he is ever brought to Russia.
Avakov is accused of organizing murders, the use of banned methods of warfare, kidnapping, and the obstruction of journalists' activities.
The same court arrested in absentia the governor of Ukraine's eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, Ihor Kolomoyskiy, on July 2 on the same charges.
Russia added Kolomoyskiy and Avakov to its wanted list on June 21. The charges come as Ukrainian forces continue their offensive against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
Russian FM Sergei Lavrov: Ukrainian authorities need to encourage the rebels for constructive dialogue. "The [rebels] are ready for that. But they are not ready... to [first] respond to categorical demands to surrender and give in."
Valeriy Chaly, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration: Kyiv will not negotiate with representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic. "This is unacceptable... the ball is not in Ukraine's court, because Ukraine has carried out all steps necessary for switching to peaceful settlement."
Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Danylo Lubkivskiy, has called on Ukraine's European partners to pressure Russia to release Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko.
Savchenko was kidnapped on June 19 and is now being detained on Russian territory on suspicion of involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists.
"The very fact of this [kidnapping] is a cynical, barbarous, blasphemous face," Lubkivskiy said. "One that not only violates international law, but crosses the bounds of morality."
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Derek Chollet is testifying today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Russia and Ukraine.
He says the U.S. is soon to deliver radios, night-vision binoculars, robots, and other military ammunition to Ukraine.
Only [Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert] Menendez remembered Savchenko in today's hearing. [Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland] said this [kidnapping and detention] is a violation of international norms and is proof that Russia is at war.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for Myroslava Gongadze says that she is withdrawing her appeal in the case of Oleksiy Pukach, the highest-ranking figure to be jailed over the murder of Gongadze's journalist husband, Heorhiy Gongadze, in 2000.
Pukach, the former head of external surveillance at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison.
Lawyer Valentina Telichenko had initially filed an appeal in order to force investigators to examine Pukach's claims that the murder was ordered by then-President Leonid Kuchma and his then cheif of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn. But Telichenko now says she is withdrawing the appeal because, if approved, it could clear the way for Pukach's release from custody.
Today marks Viktor Yanukovych's 64th birthday. (Also Donald Rumsfeld's 82nd, but we digress.) The greetings are flowing in:
For Viktor Fyodorovich on his birthday, sincere wishes for long years in a high-security prison.