In Artemivsk, in the Donetsk region, a retired woman has been holding a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies. She sits at a central trolleybus stop in the city with a sign that has a photograph of Putin with a glass of wine in his hand along with the caption, "To idiots! Without you, I wouldn’t be here."
The woman, whose name is Oleksandra, has been coming to the bus stop for a few days now. She has decided that to hold the protest on a daily basis -- she promises to be at same spot every day from 10 a.m.to 11:30 a.m.
Oleksandra explained that an article on the way Putin "is destroying Russia" prompted her to protest. According to her, passers-by have had different opinions about her sign.
"Every day, I record the ratio," she says. "The amounts of people who support me, and those who say nothing, are equal. Thirty percent don't themselves understand what they are saying. I can’t even call this a reaction or aggression -- it's madness."
Russia says it has spent around 60 million dollars on Ukrainian refugees, according to the current exchange rate. The head of the Russian Investigation Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, cited this figure during a meeting about "combating civilian human rights violations in southeast Ukraine."
"According to the data on expenditure on refugees from Ukraine … the Russian Federation suffered damage worth over 4 billion rubles," Bastrykin said.
Russia claims that it has given shelter to 2.6 million Ukrainians, one million of whom left Ukraine because of the conflict in Donbas. However, according to the UN, a total of over a million people left Ukraine for Russia.
Here's a video from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service of a funeral service for guardsmen killed outside the parliament in Kyiv this week:
Members of Ukraine's parliament and National Guard attended a funeral service on September 3 for two guardsmen killed by a grenade thrown during violent protests. A member of the nationalist Svoboda political alliance has been arrested for the grenade attack.
Kyiv City Council has renamed the street where the Russian consulate in Ukraine is located.
Today, 71 Kyiv councilors supported the decision to rename Panfilov Street as Volunteer Battalions Street, based on a motion put forward by Petro Kuzik from the nationalist Svoboda party.
"Through difficult times in the country, the guys from volunteer battalions stopped the further occupation of Ukraine and stopped the enemy with their own lives," Kuzik said.
Kuzik added that it was a coincidence the consulate of the Russian Federation was housed on the same street.
Here's an update from our news desk:
Foreign ministers from Nordic and Baltic countries have called for the immediate release of an Estonian security officer recently sentenced in Russia to 15 years in jail.
Eston Kohver, an officer with the Estonian Internal Security Service, was sentenced on August 19 at a closed-door trial after being found guilty of espionage and illegally crossing the Russian border.
Estonia vehemently denied the charges, saying Kohver was abducted in Estonia a year ago and dragged into Russia.
Meeting in Copenhagen on September 3, the foreign ministers said "Kohver's abduction and subsequent illegal detention in Russia constitute a clear violation of international law."
They also urged Russia to release Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov and his co-defendant Oleksandr Kolchenko, who were sentenced on August 25 to 20 years and 10 years in prison, respectively, on terrorism charges.
The prosecution of Sentsov and Kolchenko has been widely criticized as retaliation for their outspoken opposition to Russia's annexation of Crimea.
(dpa)