An excerpt:
KYIV, Ukraine — Former platoon commander Vitaliy Yatsyk remains impressively calm when he remembers the day he says Russian tanks killed scores of his comrades outside a sleepy railway hub in eastern Ukraine.
The ambush was the deadliest of surprises: As far as the battered and encircled Ukrainian troops understood, they were to be granted safe passage by the Russians — a so-called “green corridor” — back to friendly territory after days of fierce fighting.
But it didn’t turn out that way.
Instead, tanks, artillery and machine gun fire blew apart their convoy as it sped away in panic, leaving bodies scattered and machinery burning across desolate fields and dirt roads.
“It ended up as a corridor of death,” Yatsyk says.
France: Hollande, Merkel, Putin Back Truce Plan For Eastern Ukraine
The French Presidency says France, Germany, and Russia back plans for a complete cease-fire in eastern Ukraine from next week.
On August 26, representatives from Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists agreed to strive for an end to all truce violations from September 1 -- the day the new school year is to begin.
After the leaders of France, Germany, and Russia spoke by telephone on August 29, French President Francois Hollande's office said, "They strongly backed the call for a complete cease-fire from September 1."
It said Hollande also agreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin that it would be useful to hold a summit with Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko “in the coming weeks.”
During the phone call, Putin expressed his concern over the "continual bombardment of towns” by the Ukrainian Army and “the concentration of Ukrainian armed forces all along the demarcation line," the Kremlin said.
He also insisted on a direct dialogue between Kyiv and separatist leaders and the removal of economic blockades on the region.
Fighting between Ukrainian forces and the rebels has killed more than 6,400 people since March 2014.
A cease-fire agreement reached in Minsk in February has been regularly violated.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Norwegian TV To Air Drama About Fictional Russian Invasion
A Norwegian TV channel says it will air a fictional drama series depicting a Russian invasion of Norway, a move that has annoyed Moscow.
In the program, called Occupy, Russia partly occupies Norway after radical environmentalists seize power and freeze the Scandinavian nation's oil and gas industry, according to TV2 drama chief Christopher Hauge.
Hauge told AP on August 29 that he was surprised by the reaction to the series, saying it is "foremost about Norway and Norwegians, not Russia or Russians."
Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, the Russian ambassador in Oslo, told Russia's TASS new agency that "Russia, regrettably, has the role of the aggressor."
"In the worst traditions of the Cold War, [this show] decided to scare Norwegian viewers with a nonexistent threat from the East," he said on August 27.
Norway's Foreign Ministry had no comment on the TV show.
The series is the most expensive drama in Norwegian television history, costing 90 million Norwegian kroner ($11 million), according to TV2.
Based on reporting by AP
KLM Drops Inflight Recording By Controversial, Ukrainian-Born Pianist
By RFE/RL
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has dropped a recording from its inflight playlist by a controversial Ukrainian-born classical pianist.
Valentina Lisitsa has gained notoriety in recent months mainly for her comments on social media in support of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
She has also labeled as "Nazi" the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, among other comments deemed offensive.
KLM took the action after receiving complaints from passengers.
In a posting on its website on August 28, the Dutch airline wrote: "KLM gets requests from passengers to alter aspects of its product that they consider to be sensitive, unclear or incorrect. KLM has therefore decided to remove the recordings of the pianist in question from its Inflight Entertainment System."
Lisitsa's controversial comments prompted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to cancel two of her concerts planned for April.
Canada has over 1 million people claiming Ukrainian ancestry.
Lisitsa, who was born in Kyiv in 1973, emigrated to the United States in 1991. She says her ethnic background is Russian and Polish.
Lisitsa maintains her remarks have been misconstrued and are intended as satire.