The head of Creon Energy advisers, Fares Kilzie, speculated to ITAR-TASS that the new sanctions will cost Russia's fuel and energy sector at least $150 billion-$200 billion.
Interfax quotes the head of the presidium of the self-styled "Donetsk People's Republic," Denis Pushilin, as denying that separatist forces have been receiving weapons from Russia:
"We started defending our territory effectively with our bare hands and occasionally with double-barrels. The DPR defense minister, Ihor Strelkov (Ihor Girkin, aka Strelkov), arrived in Slovyansk with a small squad armed with hunting rifles and left with armored vehicles, these were mainly trophies. We aren't getting arms supplies from anyone, although we would like to, in order to defend the civilian population more efficiently."
Here's Reuters video of Putin's calling the latest round of U.S. sanctions targeting major Russian banks and energy companies a "dead end" that will have a "boomerang effect." The Russian leader said at the news conference in Brasilia on July 16 that he believed the new sanctions could harm the long-term national interests of the United States.
Award-winning Russian ORT journalist Pavel Sheremet announced on Facebook that he'd quit his job over Moscow policies on Ukraine. He claimed that the state TV station's management was being pressured to "deal with the Russophobe Sheremet," RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Sheremet reiterated his criticism of the annexation of Crimea and support for Ukrainian separatists as a "bloody adventure and fatal mistake."
Today's map of the military state of affairs in eastern Ukraine, as commissioned and issued by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council:
Two journos wondering why Moscow has not yet responded to the accusation from Kyiv that a Russian plane shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet over Ukrainian territory late yesterday.
Putin, apparently, "could...not promise your return to the Crimea because you were a citizen of the (emphasis ours) Ukraine and a Member of Parliament in Kiev."