Tank Recon: U.K. Firm Says It Verified Russian Presence In Ukraine
A British research firm used machine learning to compile what it says is visual evidence of Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Moscow has denied involvement, but the researchers said they have identified Russian tanks deployed with separatists in defeating Ukraine's government forces in a key battle. By Current Time and John Mastrini
Kyiv Court Rules To Launch Probe Against Poroshenko, Klimkin On Corruption Charges
By RFE/RL
A court in Kyiv has ordered Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau to launch a probe against former President Petro Poroshenko and former Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin on charges of abuse of power.
Ukraine's registry for court decisions placed the August 15 ruling of Kyiv's Solomyanka District Court on its website on August 21, saying that the ruling cannot be appealed.
It is not clear what charges Poroshenko and Klimkin are facing.
According to the court ruling, the case was initiated by an unidentified individual.
In recent weeks, Poroshenko was questioned twice as a witness by the State Bureau for Investigations in a tax evasion case.
Poroshenko lost a reelection bid in April to Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
A day after Zelenskiy's inauguration in May, Andriy Portnov, a former deputy head in the administration of ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, returned to Ukraine from self-imposed exile abroad and filed several lawsuits against Poroshenko, accusing him of economic crimes and illegal attempts to retain power, among other things.
A billionaire confectioner, Poroshenko and his party successfully ran on a pro-European, anti-Russian ticket in July parliamentary elections, winning 25 seats.
With reporting by UNIAN and Ukrayinska Pravda
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Russia reportedly planning to allow five jailed Ukrainians to serve sentences at home:
By RFE/RL
Five Ukrainian nationals held in Russia may be handed over to Kyiv to serve the rest of their sentences at home.
Both the Interfax news agency and Kommersant reported citing sources on August 21 that negotiations were being held about extraditing the five after they were transferred recently from different prison across Russia to Moscow.
"The transfer of five convicts, who have been moved to Moscow, to Ukraine for continuing to serve the sentences pronounced by Russian courts is under consideration," Interfax quoted an unnamed source as saying.
"The format of this procedure is being discussed," the source added.
The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center said the day before that five Ukrainians held in Russia -- Volodymyr Balukh, Stanislav Klykh, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Pavlo Hryb, and Mykola Karpyuk, had been transferred from labor camps in several different regions to the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow.
The United States and European Union has called on Russia to free dozens of Ukrainian citizens who are being held in prison or experiencing other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Moscow-annexed Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014, after sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries.
Moscow is also backing separatists in a war against Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,300 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (w/Interfax and Kommersant)