Boxing champion Usyk rejects Hero of Ukraine award:
Ukrainian boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk has rejected a proposal to award him with the country's highest honor, the Hero of Ukraine medal, saying he doesn't need anything from the government.
"Do not bother me and that is the best support you can give me," Usyk told journalists in Kyiv on August 1.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman had proposed to award Usyk with the Hero of Ukraine title after he unified the cruiserweight division's four titles by defeating Russia's Murat Gassiev in Moscow last month.
"The hero title? I do not need any title, as for my people, for a certain part of my country's people, I am a hero," Usyk said.
"There is no need for any additional insignia," he added. "I do not need the insignia that you are giving around to those who both deserve and don't deserve it."
Usyk, a former Olympic gold medalist, now holds the WBA, IBF, WBC, and WBO belts after just 15 professional fights, all of which he won.
Usyk, who was born in Ukraine's Crimea region, says he was forced to leave the peninsula after it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Moscow has also backed separatists in a war that has killed more than 10,300 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (UNIAN and Ukrayinska Pravda)
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Wednesday, August 1, 2018. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
Protesters In Ukraine Demand Probe Into Acid Attack Against Activist
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Dozens of protesters gathered in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson on August 1, demanding a thorough investigation into a recent acid attack against a local activist.
Activists from the National Corps far-right political party, nongovernmental organizations from Kyiv, and regional lawmakers were among the protesters.
On July 31, an unidentified attacker threw acid at Kateryna Handzyuk, an adviser to the mayor of the Black Sea port city, and ran away, according to local police.
Handzyuk, who is known for her criticism of the local police, suffered severe burns on her body and is currently in a hospital in serious condition.
Yuriy Ravelev, a doctor at the Kherson regional hospital, told RFE/RL that more than 30 percent of Handzyuk's body was burned by the acid.
Regional Prosecutor-General Vitaliy Tryhubenko met with the protesters after they threw several smoke grenades at the prosecutor’s office. Tryhubenko promised a thorough investigation.
Police launched a probe into the attack, initially listing the case as hooliganism. They later changed that into "premeditated infliction of bodily harm with a goal to intimidate a person."
On August 1, Larysa Sarhan, spokeswoman of the Prosecutor-General's Office, wrote on Facebook that the case was redefined again as "attempted murder with extreme violence."
Ukrainian Leader Poroshenko Looks To Sue Russia Over Donbas, Crimea
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered the creation of a body to prepare a lawsuit against Russia for damages caused by separatists whom Moscow supports in the Donbas region and for its illegal annexation of the Crimea Peninsula.
"The ongoing armed aggression of Russia brings to the Ukrainian soil new immeasurable human suffering every day, infrastructure is destroyed, enterprises and economic potential of the Donbas and Crimea are destroyed,” he wrote on August 1 on Facebook.
"Therefore, we should not hesitate even for a minute with the formation of Ukraine's consolidated claim to Russia to compensate for the damage inflicted," he said.
Poroshenko said he asked his cabinet to take steps for the “speedy creation” of an interagency coordinating body based on the law of reintegration adopted by Kyiv in January.
That law, he wrote, "clearly confirms Ukraine's devotion to a peaceful settlement and reflects my ideology of peaceful reintegration of the occupied region."
Moscow's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its military, political, and economic support for separatists in eastern Ukraine prompted the United States, the European Union, and others to impose sanctions on Russia.
More than 10,300 people have been killed since April 2014 in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and the Russia-backed separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Although Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine's domestic affairs, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."
At a summit earlier this month, Ukraine and the European Union, while agreeing on the need for reforms in Kyiv, also condemned Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its backing of the separatists.
On July 31, the EU expanded its sanctions against Moscow to include companies that helped build a bridge from Russia to Crimea.
"I am glad that my strategy was supported by the EU leaders during the Ukraine-EU summit, expressing their readiness to take the patronage of the restoration of the settlements of the Donbas," Poroshenko said in his statement.
It is not known how effective such a suit against Russia would be or whether Moscow would even acknowledge it.
Kyiv in the past has filed cases against Moscow with various international bodies with little success. In January 2017, Ukraine filed a case against Russia with the Court of Justice, the highest United Nations court.
Moscow in the past has rejected international rulings over its Ukraine-related actions, calling them "biased and politically motivated."