Three Ukrainian Soldiers Die In Training Accident
Three Ukrainian soldiers have died and nine were wounded during a training accident on July 6, the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
The soldiers were killed by a suspected mortar explosion during tactical exercises, the statement added.
It said that there would be an official investigation.
The accident happened in western Ukraine.
Kyiv is fighting a Russia-backed separatist insurgency in the country’s east that has killed at least 10,300 people since 2014.
Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Thursday, July 5, 2018. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.
Huntsman: Russia's 'Malign Activity' To Top Trump's Meeting With Putin, NATO
By Mike Eckel
WASHINGTON – The U.S. ambassador to Russia has defended President Donald Trump's decision to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and insisted that it was up to Moscow to reverse the downward spiral in relations with Washington.
In a conference call with reporters on July 5, Jon Huntsman said Trump will initially meet one-on-one with Putin, followed by an expanded meeting to include top advisers.
He also defended the notion of holding the meeting with Putin in the first place, something some experts and officials have questioned, given ongoing Russian actions in Ukraine, Syria, and persistent questions about Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"It is in the interest of America's national security to determine if Russia is willing to make progress in our bilateral relations," he said.
The meeting, to be held in Helsinki on July 16, is the first major summit between the two leaders and comes as relations between Moscow and Washington have sunk to levels not seen since the Cold War.
“The ball really is in Russia's court and the president will continue to hold Russia accountable for its malign activity," Huntsman said.
The issue of extending the New START arms treaty is expected to come up for discussion, as will the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, a landmark agreement that Washington has accused Moscow of violating repeatedly.
Also looming over the summit is the question of Russia’s alleged interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Putin ordered a hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed at swaying U.S. voters, and officials later said the Kremlin clearly intended to support Trump.
Those findings were endorsed earlier this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
However, Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on those conclusions and suggested the various investigations into Russian meddling were political motivated.
"We're entering with our eyes wide open, but peace is always worth the effort," Huntsman said.
The question of Ukraine is also expected to come up. Washington hit Moscow with economic sanctions in 2014 for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and has criticized Russia for fueling the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Trump has recently signaled doubts about that U.S. policy and said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of recognizing Crimea as part of Russia.
Before traveling to Helsinki, Trump will meet in Brussels with heads of state from NATO, whose relations with Washington have been roiled by Trump's criticisms of members' military spending.
He has also made veiled threats about pulling U.S. troops out of Europe, and, in the past, suggested that Washington might not observe the alliance's most important feature: that an attack on one member should be considered an attack on all members.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, downplayed fears of a split between the United States and the alliance.
"Everyone has the same goal: a strong deterrent, an alliance that is unified, an alliance that can face any of the threats that any of our members might face," she told reporters.
Ukrainian Blogger Held By Russia-Backed Separatists Declares Hunger Strike
By RFE/Rl's Ukrainian Service
A Ukrainian blogger being held by Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk has declared a hunger strike, a longtime friend and former lawmaker says.
The friend, Yehor Firsov, posted on Facebook on July 5 that Stanislav Aseyev, who writes under the name Stanislav Vasin and contributes to RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, began the hunger strike a week ago.
Firsov said Aseyev is being “kept in a damp room, sick, but does not receive the necessary medications” while under separatist custody.
Aseyev went missing in Donetsk on June 2, 2017.
Weeks later, Amnesty International said it had received information from sources in the Donetsk region saying that Aseyev was being held by the self-styled security organs of the Russia-backed separatists.
RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service has been unable to contact him since his disappearance.
Firsov wrote on Facebook in July 2017 that the separatists had confirmed they were holding Aseyev and that his mother had been allowed to visit him.
He said the separatists have accused Aseyev of espionage and threatened him with up to 14 years in prison.
Last month, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service published a book of Stanislav's essays for distribution free of charge.
Ukraine's National Union of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Amnesty International have expressed concerns over Aseyev's whereabouts and said separatists must release him immediately if they are holding him.
EU Officially Extends Russia Sanctions Through January 2019
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS -- The European Union has officially extended until January 31, 2019, the economic sanctions first placed on Russia after its 2014 annexation of Crimea and its backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The extension was finalized on July 5 and comes after EU leaders unanimously agreed to prolong the measures during the bloc's summit in Brussels on June 29.
The measures primarily hit Russia’s banking and energy sectors.
At the EU summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron updated EU counterparts on the state of play of the implementation of the Minsk agreements, to which the sanctions are linked.
The Minsk accords reached in 2014 and 2015 in the Belarusian capital aimed to resolve the conflict and called for a series of cease-fire deals in eastern Ukraine, but they have failed to hold.
Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed in fighting between Kyiv's forces and the separatists who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
Both sides have accused each other of repeated violations of the agreements.
EU leaders will again consider whether to extend the sanctions when they meet in Brussels in December.