Ukrainian border guards greeted hundreds of people crossing from Crimea who were unwilling to celebrate Ukraine's Independence Day on the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia last year.
Merkel: Everything must be done to respect Minsk deal:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says everything must be done to fully implement a cease-fire agreement in eastern Ukraine.
She was speaking in Berlin on August 24 at a joint news conference in Berlin with French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
She said the peace deal reached in Minsk in February "hasn't been fully implemented and that's meant that there have been more and more victims."
Poroshenko reiterated that "there is no alternative to the Minsk process."
Earlier in Kyiv, Poroshenko marked Ukraine's Independence Day, warning of the need to act carefully in the next year in the face of "Russian aggression."
More than 6,400 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east since April 2014. (Reuters, TASS)
This ends our live blogging for August 24. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.