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.
Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with two Ukrainian stories that were posted by RFE/RL's news desk overnight:
Ukraine's Ex-Central Bank Head Facing 'Physical Pressure' In London
KYIV -- Ukraine’s central bank chairman Yakiv Smoliy has asked police to investigate “without bias” recent incidents involving his predecessor who was the victim of an alleged hit-and-run attack in London and whose daughter-in-law had her car set on fire overnight in Kyiv on September 5.
After announcing cutting the country's prime interest rate, Smoliy told journalists at a briefing that he sees signs of "targeted psychological and physical pressure" on ex-chairwoman Valeriya Gontareva, who is credited with cleaning up the rotten banking system during her tenure and helped the state take over the country’s biggest private lender.
A car ran over Gontareva’s foot in central London on August 26, which she attributed to her work as National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) chairwoman in 2014-2018 in a video posted on YouTube on September 5 showing her inside a London hospital with a leg brace on.
Police in London are investigating the incident, the Kyiv Post reported. Police in Kyiv said they will classify the incident concerning the scorched car once they receive more information from firefighters who examined the burnt-out vehicle.
Speaking to Ukrainian magazine Novoye Vremya Biznes on September 5, Gontareva called the incidents in London and Kyiv "part of the same link in a chain" of events.
The former NBU head has previously spoken out against threats she has received from people allegedly close to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy, the former co-owner of Privatbank that the central bank nationalized under Gontareva’s watch after international auditors found a $5.5 billion hole on its balance sheet.
During her four-year tenure, Gontareva closed 80 banks that essentially were insolvent and being used as personal piggy banks by their owners who engaged in pervasive third-party lending.
Along the way, she made many enemies and this is when she began receiving verbal threats.
In numerous interviews to local and international media, Gontareva said she fears for her safety, even in London, where she is a research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
In a June interview with BBC Ukraine, Gontareva cited previous interviews Kolomoyskiy has given threatening to help bring her to Kyiv: "In an interview, Kolomoyskiy said that, if I do not return to Ukraine, he will take me out privately. In English this is kidnapping. This is a crime in the U.K. I want this to be clear to everyone. If something happens to me, I want it so that everyone knows why."
Kolomoyskiy could not be reached for comment and there is no evidence linking him to the incidents in London or Kyiv.
The NBU’s Smoliy said the two separate incidents related to Gontareva and her family were a "real threat" to the safety of officials striving to push financial reforms.
In April, Ukrainian prosecutors asked Gontareva to appear for questioning in a case related to abuse of office. She has told local media that any open cases against her "are fabricated" and and aimed at putting pressure on her for her role in nationalizing Privatbank.
Additional summons were issued in July.
Kolomoyskiy, a former business associate of President Volodymr Zelenskiy, has said he did nothing wrong and wants to regain ownership of Privatbank through the courts.
"We were carrying out reforms and are now suffering because of that," Gontareva said. "There's no other country in the world where reformists are being persecuted in such a way. I understand when it's political persecution -- that happens everywhere. But this is about exploding cars."
With reporting by Novoye Vremya, Ukrainska Pravda, BBC Ukraine, the Kyiv Post, and Bloomberg
U.S. Senators Meet Ukraine's Zelenskiy, 'More Optimistic' About Nation’s Future
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had a meeting with U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut) and Ron Johnson (Republican-Wisconsin) in Kyiv on September 5, during which both lawmakers expressed support for for the former Soviet state's continued progress.
"I want to thank our strategic partner -- the United States -- for the continued support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Zelenskiy said in statement on the presidential website.
Both senators are members of the congressional Ukraine Caucus whose mission is "to strengthen the political, military, economic, and cultural relationship between the United States and Ukraine."
Murphy said on social media that he "left [Kyiv] more optimistic about Ukraine's future than ever before" and praised its "new young reformers," including Zelenskiy, as "for real."
A week ago, President Donald Trump reportedly delayed the transfer of $250 million worth of U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
On September 5, the parties discussed the United States' "consistent policy of sanctions against Russia," the statement said.
In particular, they reportedly discussed Russia's moves to grant citizenship to residents of eastern Ukraine where an armed conflict with Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.
Cooperation in energy security, including the diversification of energy supplies and their delivery from the United States was discussed.
Earlier this month, Poland, the United States, and Ukraine signed a trilateral memorandum on the supply of American liquefied natural gas.
Zelenskiy also thanked the lawmakers for their opposition to Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which will bypass Ukraine's gas transit network once it goes online next year.
He also discussed some Ukrainian reforms, especially plans to bring Ukraine's defense sector in line with NATO standards.
Ukraine's recent administrations have made eventual membership in the transatlantic military alliance a priority.
The senators are part of a congressional delegation that also visited Kosovo and Serbia.
Russia was part of the original itinerary, but Johnson and Murphy were barred from entering that country.
Hmm....