Barring any major developments, that ends the live blogging for today.
Ratings Agencies Say Ukraine Debt Writedown Same As Default
By RFE/RL
Top ratings agencies say they see the debt restructuring deal Ukraine struck with creditors this week as tantamount to a default.
Fitch lowered the rating on Ukraine's long-term public debt from "CC" to "C," citing major losses for bondholders.
"This represents a Distressed Debt Exchange...that results in material losses to bondholders and is being conducted in order to avoid default," Fitch said.
Though the deal with lenders allows Ukraine continued access to international credit markets, Fitch's downgrade is likely to increase the cost of additional borrowing.
Standard & Poor's affirmed its long-term credit rating for Ukraine at "CC," but also said "it would classify any exchange offer or similar restructuring of Ukraine's foreign currency debt as a default."
S&P said its outlook for Ukraine remained negative as it "reflects our assessment that default on Ukraine foreign currency debt is a virtual certainty, given the government's stated position and the difficult macroeconomic environment."
The deal struck between Kyiv, Franklin Templeton, and three other U.S. financial groups calls for a 20 percent "haircut" to the face value of the bonds they hold -- nearly half of $19 billion in Eurobond debt.
The agreement shaves $11.5 billion off Ukraine's debt payments, but is still short of the $15.3 billion in savings target set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Restructuring was a mandatory part of a broader $40 billion global rescue package that the IMF patched together for Ukraine at the start of the year.
The difficult debt talks lasted for five months, with both the IMF and Washington putting immense pressure on bondholders to accept short-term losses in return for keeping Ukraine's pro-Western leaders from being forced to resume their reliance on Russia.
Ukraine's economy is expected to shrink nearly 10 percent this year due its war in the east and the loss of key coal mining and steel factories in pro-Russian separatist areas.
With reporting by AFP and TASS
White House Criticizes Ukraine Separatist Plans For Local Elections
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is criticizing pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine for threatening to take more territory and hold their own elections.
Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko by phone on August 28. The White House said Biden offered U.S. support for constitutional amendments Poroshenko has proposed to decentralize power and hold local elections while maintaining a unitary federal government in Kyiv.
Biden "welcomed news of an agreement among several pro-reform political forces to run a common slate of candidates in Ukraine’s local elections this October," the White House said.
But the vice president "strongly criticized statements by separatist leaders indicating their intention to take additional territory and hold local elections outside of the Ukrainian legal framework, in direct contravention of the Minsk agreements," it said.
Biden also praised Poroshenko for reaching a deal with Ukraine's creditors to restructure its debt. The deal with international bondholders will lighten Ukraine's public debt burden in a move aimed at helping the country avoid default.
The White House said Biden and Poroshenko also condemned recent attacks by pro-Russian forces, including attacks on international monitors.
With reporting by AP and Interfax
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
KLM Drops Inflight Recording By Controversial, Ukrainian-Born Pianist
By RFE/RL
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has dropped a recording from its inflight playlist by a controversial Ukrainian-born classical pianist.
Valentina Lisitsa has gained notoriety in recent months mainly for her comments on social media in support of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
She has also labeled as "Nazi" the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, among other comments deemed offensive.
KLM took the action after receiving complaints from passengers.
In a posting on its website on August 28, the Dutch airline wrote: "KLM gets requests from passengers to alter aspects of its product that they consider to be sensitive, unclear or incorrect. KLM has therefore decided to remove the recordings of the pianist in question from its Inflight Entertainment System."
Lisitsa's controversial comments prompted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to cancel two of her concerts planned for April.
Canada has over 1 million people claiming Ukrainian ancestry.
Lisitsa, who was born in Kyiv in 1973, emigrated to the United States in 1991. She says her ethnic background is Russian and Polish.
Lisitsa maintains her remarks have been misconstrued and are intended as satire.
Norwegian TV To Air Drama About Fictional Russian Invasion
A Norwegian TV channel says it will air a fictional drama series depicting a Russian invasion of Norway, a move that has annoyed Moscow.
In the program, called Occupy, Russia partly occupies Norway after radical environmentalists seize power and freeze the Scandinavian nation's oil and gas industry, according to TV2 drama chief Christopher Hauge.
Hauge told AP on August 29 that he was surprised by the reaction to the series, saying it is "foremost about Norway and Norwegians, not Russia or Russians."
Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, the Russian ambassador in Oslo, told Russia's TASS new agency that "Russia, regrettably, has the role of the aggressor."
"In the worst traditions of the Cold War, [this show] decided to scare Norwegian viewers with a nonexistent threat from the East," he said on August 27.
Norway's Foreign Ministry had no comment on the TV show.
The series is the most expensive drama in Norwegian television history, costing 90 million Norwegian kroner ($11 million), according to TV2.