One Ukrainian serviceman died, and five more were injured in a tripwire explosion in Luhansk Oblast.
According to head of Luhansk military-civilian administration Heorhiy Tuka, incidents like these have become a trend.
“In the near future, with the involvement of military men, rescue workers, law enforcement officers, and international organizations involved in mine clearance, I plan to convene a meeting on coordination of all of these organs for their greater efficiency in de-mining Luhansk Oblast,” he said.
The Ukrainian Security Service has put former Minister of Justice Olena Lukash on its wanted list. Lukash held the post during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.
In May 2015 the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on the suspicion that she embezzled more than 2 million hryvnas from the state budget. Allegedly, in conspiracy with others, she managed to arbitrarily transfer the money to the European Law Group company.
Lukash was put on the wanted list on July 28 and three months ago a Kyiv court had seized three arpatments she owned.
Here's another news item on the latest diplomatic efforts to find a resolution to the Ukraine crisis:
Reports say Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will meet with the French and German leaders in Paris in early October to discuss efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
The meeting of Putin, Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande would be the first face-to-face talks by the four since they met in mid-February to forge a cease-fire agreement in Minsk.
The meeting was reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, which cited France's Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French president.
The TASS news agency reported that the date of the meeting would be October 2.
The Elysee Palace said in a statement that the four leaders had spoken via phone on September 9 for about 90 minutes and that they agreed that a general cease-fire in eastern Ukraine between government troops and Russian-backed separatist fighters has generally held since September 1.
It added that they said everything must be done to continue the cease-fire's observance and to "allow the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] special observer mission to have permanent, safe, and unrestricted access" to the conflict areas.
At least 7,900 people have been killed in the fighting in Ukraine since April 2014.
(Reuters, TASS, RIA Novosti)
Russia's claim that bookish Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is a hardened veteran of the first Chechen war has been ridiculed by many. Somewhat inevitably, this has resulted in the Internet being awash with memes poking fun at the allegations. RFE/RL's Current Time TV has compiled some of the best of them in this video:
This is indeed an interesting profile of the Pakistani-born owner of the Kyiv Post:
It seems to have been all quiet on the eastern front in recent days. We'll have the latest situational map for you in an hour or two: