"Central to many of these operations is Wagner, which first emerged on the battlefields of Ukraine. Since then it has grown from a simple paramilitary outfit to providing military training, political consultancy, and intelligence and online influence operations."
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov via Interfax:
-RUSSIA CAN'T JOIN G7 AT INVITATION OF SOLE COUNTRY, GROUP MAKES DECISIONS BY CONSENSUS.
-KREMLIN DOES NOT SEE TRUMP'S SUGGESTION THAT RUSSIA SHOULD BE INVITED TO G7 SUMMIT AS PROVOCATION
From AFP:
Ukrainian police said Monday they were investigating a grenade attack on a Kiev office building that caused damage but no injuries.
An unknown assailant fired the rocket-propelled grenade at the building in central Kiev at 1:30 am (22:30 GMT), police said.
The attack damaged the facade, windows and interior of the building, which houses a Ukrainian bridge construction company called Mostobud.
Police said they were investigating the incident as a "terrorist attack" but provided no other details.
Interfax reports that Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has returned from Kyiv.
There was speculation -- although no confirmation -- that she was in the Ukrainian capital pursuant to a possible prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.
The report did not elaborate on Moskalkova's mission or provide any update on the negotiations, which were thought to have been moving forward late last week.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Group Says Crimeans Who Show Ukrainian Identity Get 'Hunted'
By RFE/RL
People expressing any form of Ukrainian identity in Russian-annexed Crimea can expect prosecution or get on a “hit list,” say two members of the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG).
Displaying the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag or its colors on property can lead to civil fines, criminal prosecution, and land “Ukrainian activists” on an online forum where people “hunt” for them, Olha Skrypnyk, head of CHRG, and group member Volodymyr Chekryhin, told the public broadcaster’s Radio Culture program.
An online forum exists in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet, called “Burn the Banderites in our city,” a reference to devotees of the mid-20th-century Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.
“There are open calls for the massacre of Ukrainian activists, information is collected -- there are 150 pages” on the forum, Chekryhin said. “There are photos of Ukrainian activists, addresses, information about where the families live, and the routes they take with their children to the kindergarten. And it is suggested to find them and deal with them.”
Hanging a Ukrainian flag or displaying its colors can lead to a civil fine, Skrypnyk said, and usually is prosecuted as an “unauthorized” demonstration.
If Ukrainian colors are painted on property, that could lead to criminal charges and jail time for committing “vandalism,” she said.
Other times, criminal cases are “fabricated,” Skrypnyk said, to imprison Ukrainians who “express any form of Ukrainian identity.”
Volodymyr Balukh was mentioned as an example.
Currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Russia, Balukh displayed a Ukrainian flag on his farmstead after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Balukh was originally arrested in December 2016 and convicted on a weapons- and explosives-possession charge in August 2017 that he said is false.
Rights groups like the Memorial Human Rights Center consider him a political prisoner and maintain the charge against him was trumped up.
“On the whole, there are risks in general with the manifestation of Ukrainian identity,” Skrypnyk said. “As for the flag and directly Ukrainian colors, it can very often be used for persecution.”