According to Crimea Realities, since August 23 unusual border guards have been working at the checkpoints between Ukraine and the annexed Crimean Peninsula -- girls in white embroidered shirts. They congratulate those crossing on Independence Day and give them blue-and-yellow bracelets.
According to the local correspondent, people have different reactions -- some are surprised, some smile, others seem annoyed instead.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has left for Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Holland, says Poroshenko's spokesman, Svyatoslav Tseholko.
RFE/RL Ukrainian Service journalist Oleksiy Matsuka, anchor of the TV program Donbas Realities, shares a photo on Facebook of a customer in a Donetsk cafe holding a Donetsk Airport sugar packet. These are, apparently, now served with coffee in Donetsk.
A group of about 30 people, along with Ukrainian Embassy staff in Russia, gathered to celebrate Ukraine’s Independence day in Moscow.
They raised a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag next to the embassy and laid flowers to the monument of Taras Shevchenko, a famous Ukrainian poet and painter.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
