Another update from our news desk:
Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to call local elections on October 25.
But the bill passed on July 17 by the Verkhovna Rada said the elections would not be held in the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in March 2014, or in rebel-held eastern districts.
The Kyiv government has had no control over parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions since fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatist rebels erupted there in April 2014. The conflict has since claimed more than 6,500 lives.
The rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk have said they would organize their own local elections in the areas they control this fall.
(AP, TASS, Interfax)
Moscow To Take' Measures' After Kyiv Expels Odesa Envoy
Russia has vowed to take "necessary measures" in response to the expulsion of its top envoy in Ukraine's Odesa region.
In a July 17 statement, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declared Moscow’s consulate general in Odesa “persona non grata” for conducting unnamed activities "incompatible" with his diplomatic work.
The SBU said career diplomat Valery Shibeko had already left Ukraine.
According to Interfax, Shibeko returned to Russia on July 15.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Interfax on July 17 that "Russia will take the necessary measures in response."
"We regard the actions taken by the Ukrainian authorities as another unfriendly step aimed at artificially fueling tensions in bilateral relations," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.