The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine has published a list of 38 Russian books that are now banned for import into the country.
Among them is a novel by Russian National Bolshevik Party founder Eduard Limonov, Kyiv Kaput, and nationalist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin’s works, including Ukraine, My War: Geopolitical Diary, and Russia’s Eurasian Revenge.
Other banned titles include The End of Project Ukraine, Superman Speaks Russian, and The Genocide Of The Russian People.
The Fiscal Service claims that the measure will prevent the usage of “informational warfare and disinformation” against Ukrainian citizens and the spread of fascist, xenophobic, and separatist ideologies on the territory of the country.
According to Bohdan Chervak, first deputy chairman of the state Radio-TV Committee, the measure is constitutional, as the law “On publishing” prohibits the distribution of imported books that call for the liquidation of Ukraine’s independence or violation of the country’s sovereignty.
Reporters Without Borders, however, has criticized the order, saying that any ban on books, movies, or media outlets is a clear violation of freedom of speech. Johann Beer, the head of the organization's Eastern Europe and Central Asia branch, said that only a court can decide to implement a prohibition like that.
“Such actions are shameful for a country that wants to become a part of the European culture,” he said.
-- Anna Shamanska, Current Time
Then there's this:
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands reports from Maikop, in southern Russia, about the growing number of Russian deserters.
Ukrainian youth talking about their "European future." Via the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
Barring any major developments, that ends the live blogging for tonight.
More from our news desk on the fighting today:
One Ukrainian soldier was killed and nine injured in the latest clashes between Ukrainian armed forces and Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk region, a Ukrainian military official says.
Vladyslav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff, said on August 10 that Ukrainian forces had managed to maintain control over the town of Starohnativka after a separatist attack.
Starohnativka is located about half way between separatist-held Donetsk and Kyiv-controlled Mariupol.
Mariupol sits along a key route linking parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by the rebels and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March, 2014.
Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, told reporters in Kyiv that up to 400 separatists supported by 10 tanks and 10 armored personnel carriers and other vehicles attacked Ukrainian positions overnight.
According to Lysenko, "the enemy suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment."
Lysenko described shelling by pro-Russian separatists in the past 24 hours as the heaviest since a battle for the town of Debaltseve in February.
Meanwhile, the de facto defense minister of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Basurin, says forces under his command stopped an attempt by Ukrainian forces to advance in the same area on August 10.
According to Basurin, Ukrainian forces lost two tanks, one armored personnel carrier, and a military truck with a missile on it.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also announced that “about 200 insurgents” had staged a pre-dawn raid on Novolaspa, a village near the town of Starohnativka.
According to the presidency, Viktor Muzhenko, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian military, "informed the president that the Ukrainian forces gave a fitting rebuff and repelled all the attacks."
However, the Defense Ministry later reported the separatists were mounting a second attack on the same village, where the outcome was not immediately clear.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the clashes were “a dangerous indication of a further escalation to come.”
The rebels said Novolaspa had always been one of their frontline outposts and said the claims by Kyiv made no sense.
The pro-Russian separatists accused Kyiv of trying to gain back territory it lost in fighting.
More than 6,400 people have been killed in the military conflict between Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russia separatists in parts of Ukraine's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk since April, 2014.
A fragile cease-fire was negotiated in Minsk in February, but it is marred by daily violations.
Another angle: