Ukraine sends two Russian border guards to pretrial detention:
By RFE/RL
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says two Russian border guards detained on June 30 in the Kherson region, near Russian-controlled Crimea, have been sent to pretrial detention.
In a statement on July 11, the SBU said the two Russians were informed that they are suspected of violating Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
On June 30, Ukrainian Border Service chief Viktor Nazarenko said that the two detained Russian border guards had claimed that they had lost their way during drills. Initially a local court in the Kherson region ordered them held in custody for 15 days.
The SBU has identified them as Askar Kulub and Vladimir Kuznetsov.
The Kherson region borders Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014 after sending in troops and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and most world countries.
Yanukovych's treason trial adjourned until August 3:
By RFE/RL
A Ukrainian court has adjourned Viktor Yanukovych's in-absentia treason trial until August 3 after the former president's new lawyer asked for more time to prepare.
In a July 12 ruling, Kyiv court Judge Vladyslav Devyatko granted state-appointed defense attorney Vitaliy Meshechek's request for a few weeks to get acquainted with the case.
Yanukovych's previous lawyers, Vitaliy Serdyuk and Ihor Fedorenko, withdrew from the case on July 6, saying Yanukovych had informed them that he did not need their services anymore.
Yanukovych announced that day that he would not participate in the trial, charging that it was politically motivated. The court then decided to provide him with a state-appointed lawyer.
Yanukovych abandoned office in late February 2014 and fled to Russia in the face of protests triggered by his decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and improve trade ties with Moscow instead.
Dozens of people were killed when his government attempted to clamp down on the pro-European protests known as the Euromaidan.
Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Yanukovych, who is accused of treason, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression.
After he fled, Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomented opposition to the central government in eastern Ukraine, where the ensuing war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people. (w/UNIAN, Ukranews.com)
Poroshenko proposes adding international investigator to Sheremet probe:
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- President Petro Poroshenko has proposed incorporating an internationally recognized investigator into the Ukrainian team investigating the killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet, in hopes of jumpstarting a probe that has produced no significant leads in a year.
At a July 11 meeting with members of Sheremet's family and a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) delegation in Kyiv to assess the probe, Poroshenko said he would "happily accept" a "professional, trustworthy" investigator, such as someone "from the FBI or Scotland Yard" to oversee the high-profile case "if it is agreed by the family."
Sheremet, a Belarusian-born journalist, was killed by a car bomb in central Kyiv on July 20, 2016. No one has been arrested or prosecuted.
Sheremet's mother, Lyudmila Sheremet, his daughter, Elizaveta Sheremet, and his partner, Olena Prytula, who is also owner and co-founder of the independent Ukrainian news site Ukrayinska Pravda where Sheremet worked as a columnist -- all of whom were present at the meeting -- accepted the president's proposal.