The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, after analyzing shelling in Sartana village, close to port city of Mariupol, has concluded that on August 16 it was shelled from the east.
Observers, who studied 11 impact sites, think that they were caused by 122-mm or 152-mm artillery rounds that were “mostly” fired from the east where separatist positions are located. Such artillery is banned under the Minsk agreements.
Two people died in the Sartana shelling. Doctors also had to amputate a 10-year old girl’s foot.
Fresh Fighting In Pisky, Eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian government forces traded fire with Russian-backed separatists in the village of Pisky, near the rebel-held city of Donetsk, late on August 18. The clash took place amid escalating violence in recent days along the front lines in eastern Ukraine (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Saakashvili Trains Alongside Odesa Police
The governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, took part in police training exercises led by U.S. instructors in the Black Sea city on August 18. Saakashvili has played a highly public role since taking over as governor in May, mingling with locals and promising to make sweeping changes to stamp out corruption. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Over the past day three Ukrainian fighters and two civilians -- including a 5-month old girl -- have been injured in Donbas, said Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.
He added that medium intensity fighting continues in Luhansk.
The situation is stable in Donetsk Oblast, around Svitlodarsk and Horlivka in particular. According to Lysenko, separatists didn’t use heavy artillery there once. At the same time he emphasized the activation of snipers, who have shot at field fortifications on the Ukrainian side.
Lysenko says that separatists continue to shell the Ukrainian positions close to Mariupol.
Russian Prosecutors Demand 23-Year Sentence For Ukrainian Filmmaker
By RFEF/RL
Russian prosecutors have asked a court to send a Ukrainian filmmaker to prison for 23 years on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorist attacks.
Critics have dismissed the charges against Oleg Sentsov as retaliation for his pro-Ukrainian position in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Sentsov, a Crimean native, was a vocal opponent of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, which followed a hastily called referendum and the deployment of Russian military forces across the peninsula.
Sentsov and a co-defendant, Oleksandr Kolchenko, went on trial on July 21 in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border.
Sentsov has been charged with organizing a terrorist group, planning terrorist attacks, and illegally acquiring explosives.
He and Kolchenko deny any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Kolchenko to 12 years in jail.
Sentsov's lawyer, Vladimir Samokhin, called for acquittal, saying all the charges are groundless.
They were arrested with two other Ukrainian citizens -- Oleksiy Chyrniy and Hennadiy Afanasyev -- in May 2014.
Earlier, Chyrniy and Afanasyev were found guilty of participating in the group and sentenced to seven years in prison.