Poland's parliament approved a 100-million euro loan for Ukraine, tweets Ukraine's embassy in Poland. The funds are aimed at developing border infrastructure.
In the Russian city of Chelyabinsk a bust of Lenin has been painted into the colors of the Ukrainian flag for the second time this year.
Russian police have opened a vandalism investigation.
The bust had already painted blue and yellow back in May. On September 2, a 27-year old man was accused of vandalism and detained -- police had found a coat and a pair of gloves stained with paint in his house.
At a meeting of his Cabinet of Ministers today, President Petro Poroshenko said the grenade thrown at law enforcement officers during a violent demonstration outside parliament on August 31 -- which killed three members of the National Guard -- was meant to provoke return fire. The other grenade, which police found on the detained activist, was meant to be thrown into the windows of the parliament building.
The trilateral contact group, consisting of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, has begun a new meeting today in Minsk.
The group is expected to develop an agreement concerning the withdrawal of tanks, and weapons with a caliber of less than 100 mm, from the de facto border between separatists and the Ukrainian army. The work on the document began at the beginning of August, but the sides haven’t managed to reach an agreement yet.
According to the Minsk deal, the withdrawal of heavy weapons was supposed to have happened back in February, but both sides accuse each other of violating the agreement.
Crimean Tatars Plan Protest At Peninsula's Boundary
KYIV -- Leaders of the Crimean Tatars say they are planning a protest action at the border with Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March 2014.
The head of the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body, the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, told reporters in Kyiv on September 8 that Tatar activists will block roads and checkpoints to Crimea later in September in order to prevent Ukrainian goods from entering the peninsula.
Chubarov added that the exact date will be announced next week.
The veteran leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, criticized Ukrainian businesses for sending their products to Russia via Crimea.
Prices of clothes and agricultural products are higher in Russia that in Ukraine.
Dzhemilev said such activities contradict the Ukrainian government's political stance on Crimea's annexation.
He added that Crimean Tatar leaders will meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko next week to discuss the issue.
UN: Nearly 8,000 People Killed In Ukraine Conflict
The United Nations says at least 7,962 people have been killed and 17,811 wounded in the conflict in Ukraine.
"This is a conservative estimate and the actual numbers could be considerably higher," the UN Human Rights Office said on September 8.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east broke out in April 2014.
A truce agreement reached in Minsk in February has been regularly violated.