Good morning!
Two news stories from overnight:
-- The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on September 16 “expressed concern” over the possibility a former Ukrainian police general who confessed to the gruesome murder of a journalist may have his life prison sentence commuted.
-- A 28-year-old man who fought alongside Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine was on September 16 found dead with seven gunshot wounds on a stairwell inside a multi-story residential building in the Donetsk region city of Mariupol.
Another developing story we're following:
Former Ukrainian Central Banker's House In Flames
The house of former Ukrainian central bank chief Valeria Hontareva burned down overnight from September 16-17. Hontareva, who sent this video of the blaze to RFE/RL, reported a week earlier that her home was raided by the police. She said on September 9 she was considering requesting political asylum in the United Kingdom due to pressure on her from Ukrainian authorities.
Latest from Kyiv on the fire at Valeria Hontareva's home:
KYIV -- The former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine says her home outside of Kyiv was burned to the ground overnight in an apparent arson.
Speaking to RFE/RL by phone from her home in London, Valeria Hontareva said that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at her residence in the village of Horenychi, setting it ablaze in the early morning hours of September 17.