Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

Here's a natural-sound video of the start of military exercises in Georgia that also include Ukraine:

NATO Members, Partners Join Forces In Georgian Drills

Exercise Noble Partner 2017 was launched on July 30 at the Vaziani military base near Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili attended the opening ceremony. A total of 2,800 soldiers from five NATO member countries (the United States, Britain, Germany, Turkey, and Slovenia) and three NATO partner countries (Ukraine, Armenia, and Georgia) are taking part in the drills, which have seen U.S. and German heavy military machinery being deployed on Georgian soil for the first time. (RFE/RL's Georgian Service)

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NATO Members, Partners Join Forces In Georgian Drills

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Here's an item courtesy of RFE/RL's news desk:

Ukraine Says One Soldier Killed, Nine Injured In Fighting With Russia-Backed Separatists

Ukraine says that one of its soldiers was killed and nine others injured in fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said on July 30 that the bulk of the casualties over the previous 24 hours were sustained in the front-line town of Krasnohorivka due to shelling from separatist forces.

The shelling there left one soldier dead and eight others wounded, the council said in a statement. Another Ukrainian soldier was wounded during an attack on government positions in the town of Shirokino, it added.

Hostilities between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists persist in eastern Ukraine despite an internationally backed 2015 cease-fire deal aimed at resolving the conflict, which has killed more than 10,000 since April 2014.

Kyiv, the United States, the EU, and NATO accuse Moscow of supporting the separatists with weapons and personnel, an allegation Moscow rejects despite substantial evidence of such backing.

Ukraine and the separatists frequently trade accusations of cease-fire violations.

Not surprisingly, this image of what seems to be a new Russian passport placing Ukraine's Donetsk region in Russia has been generating some comment on Twitter: