Here's a mistral update from our news desk:
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says Paris will pay Russia about 1.2 billion euros ($1.32 billion) for the cancelled Mistral warship deal.
Le Drian said on radio RTL on August 6 that the issue had been discussed by French President Francois Hollande and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the previous day and that "there is no further dispute on the matter."
Le Drian said the initial price for the two Mistral helicopter-carrying warships was 1.2 billion euros, but France will actually pay a sum less than that because the ships were unfinished and the contract was suspended.
He added there are no penalties against France within the 2011 contract, which was first postponed in 2014 and then cancelled because of Russia's role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Le Drian said several other countries had expressed interest in buying the two warships, which Russian officials had named the Vladivostok and the Sevastopol.
(Reuters, TASS)
Good morning.
U.S. Democrat politician, Nancy Pelosi, who is the minority leader of the the U.S. House of Representatives, was in Kyiv yesterday. Here are some tweets of her visit:
This ends our live blogging for August 5. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.