We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
In case you haven't seen it already, Brian Whitmore's Power Vertical Podcast focused on recent developments in Ukraine.
Podcast: The Hot And Cold War
Fighting escalates in the Donbas. One military intelligence officer is killed by a car bomb in Kyiv. And another is killed in eastern Ukraine.
For some time, the three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine appeared to be settling into a frozen conflict.
But suddenly, things seem to be heating up.
On the latest Power Vertical Podcast, we discuss how the war is changing and what this means.
Joining me is co-host Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and author of the blog In Moscow's Shadows; and RFE/RL's Ukraine correspondent Christopher Miller, who is fresh from a tour of the front lines in the Donbas.
Enjoy...
Listen to or download the podcast above or subscribe to The Power Vertical Podcast on iTunes.
This just in from our news desk:
Ukraine Detains Two Russian FSB Agents Who Came Ashore From Black Sea
Ukrainian authorities have detained two men identified as Russian security agents after they came ashore in a small boat on Ukrainian-government controlled territory along the Black Sea, officials of both countries say.
Ukraine’s border police on June 30 said the two men claimed to be Federal Security Service (FSB) personnel who became lost in the waters of the Black Sea during a training exercise.
Russia's state-run Interfax news agency quoted the FSB as confirming that the men were with the agency. The FSB said the men had taken a "wrong route" during "drills."
The statement also said the FSB hoped the men would be returned to Russia "in the near future."
Ukrainian border guard spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said the men had been jailed for 15 days.
It was not immediately clear where the men washed ashore, but officials said they were detained near the city of Armyansk.
Tensions have been high in Ukraine's occupied Crimea region since Russia illegally annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia also has supported pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, leading to a prolonged conflict that has left more than 10,000 people dead.
Western nations have imposed sanctions on Moscow in response to its interference in Ukraine.