That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Saturday, August 15. Check this space tomorrow for more of our ongoing coverage. Thanks for reading.
An excerpt:
At night, as the temperature drops, the fighting begins in earnest. The air is filled with the snap of bullets and the low whistle of mortar rounds. Ukrainian and separatist tanks exchange fire from pre-dug positions, the sound of their massive guns distinct over the din of small-arms fire and mortar impacts.
Inside Point 18, plaster falls from the ceiling and the structure hums when rounds skip off the exposed steel of its frame. Some soldiers prepare ammunition for the automatic grenade-launchers and machine guns in the trenches; others smoke and watch Russian TV on their lone 20-inch set.
Though some nights are quieter than others, on average, 7th Company expends more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition a week -- from weapons including Kalashnikovs and the 30mm cannons fired by its armored personnel carriers.
One of the hallmarks of Point 18’s defenses is what the men call “the museum.” In the trench closest to the separatists’ positions is a Russian heavy machine gun made in the 1930s. It is a massive antique the company keeps operational through constant maintenance.
Arrests made after men hurl smoke bombs at Ukraine gay forum
Moscow (dpa) - About 10 people were arrested Saturday after masked men hurled smoke bombs into a venue in the Ukrainian city of Odesa where gay rights activists were planning to meet, officials said.
The attacks targeted a venue where activists were planning to hold a forum on the history of gay rights after a demonstration they had planned for Saturday was banned by a Ukrainian court citing fears that it could spark violence.
Organizers reacted angrily to the ban, saying that their constitutional right of assembly was being violated.
Police quickly intervened, officials said. There were no injuries.
Violence against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is a growing phenomenon in the socially
conservative country, where the Orthodox Church has considerable influence.
Hundreds of troops, tanks, aircraft in Polish army parade
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Dozens of fighter jets soared, tanks rumbled and hundreds of troops marched in a Polish military parade Saturday, a show of force on the national armed forces' holiday.
Poland's new President Andrzej Duda, who is the armed forces' supreme commander, received the parade in downtown Warsaw, along with Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak.
F-16 and MiG-29 fighters, C-130 Hercules transport planes and helicopters flew overhead, while Rosomak and Stryker armored vehicles and Langusta missile launchers rumbled through downtown Warsaw in front of thousands of spectators. U.S. and Canadian troops, taking part in NATO exercises in Poland, also participated.
Duda, who took office Aug. 6, said he wants to strengthen Poland's armed forces and raise NATO presence as a deterrent in face of a resurgent Russia and an armed conflict in neighboring Ukraine.
"I would like us to have a state that is capable of defending those who are weaker and does not have to be afraid of those who are stronger," said Duda, a Catholic conservative. He was quoting the words of his political mentor, the late President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a 2010 plane crash in Russia.
The Aug. 15 holiday marks Poland's victory over Russian Bolsheviks in 1920 near Warsaw. The victory called "The Miracle on the Vistula" is believed to have stopped the Bolshevik's march further West.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
