Is the cease-fire holding? Poroshenko's comments yesterday were a bit ambiguous.
Ukrainian army positions have come under twelve attacks over the past day, the army operation press center has reported.
It said infantry combat vehicles shelled Ukrainian positions in Maryinka, and small arms and grenade launchers fired on positions south of Avdiyivka.
Ukrainian positions were also attacked in Kirove and Zaytseve.
Breaking from Reuters:
FRANCE'S HOLLANDE SAYS IF PEACE PROCESS IN UKRAINE SUCCEEDS WILL SUPPORT LIFTING OF SANCTIONS
Latest from our news desk on some of Hollande's comments:
French President Francois Hollande has proposed a meeting of the leaders of Germany, Russia, and Ukraine later this month as a cease-fire appeared to be largely holding in eastern Ukraine.
Hollande told reporters on September 7 that the talks could take place in Paris before the United Nations' General Assembly opens on September 28 "so that we can evaluate the [peace] process, where it's at."
“There has been progress in the last few weeks, he said. “The cease-fire has almost been respected."
Fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east has claimed more than 6,500 people since April last year.
A truce agreement reached in Minsk in February has been regularly violated, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on September 5 that the deal had been observed for the first time for an entire week.
Russian military drills
President Vladimir Putin has ordered snap combat-readiness drills in Russia's central military district.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on September 7 that the exercises involve paratroopers and military transport aviation as well as some aircraft from other military districts.
"We have to check the capabilities of paratroopers when they are deployed over large distances and their readiness to make landings on unknown aerodromes," he said.
The minister added that the war games, which run to September 12, are also designed to test the Health and Agriculture Ministries' "readiness to carry out their tasks in wartime conditions."
The central military district ranges from the regions around the Volga River to the Ural mountains and Siberia, while also including far northern Russia.
Russia has intensified snap checks of its military might, as the crisis in Ukraine sent relations between the West and Moscow to lows not seen since the Cold War.
Stoltenberg to visit Ukraine:
Kyiv says NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Ukraine later this month, for the first time since taking office in March 2014.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin made the announcement on September 7 following talks in Brussels with Stoltenberg.
Klimkin said the date of the "symbolic" visit will be announced "in the coming days."
He also said Kyiv will “fully use the potential of the visit" to cement ties and boost cooperation with NATO, with Stoltenberg invited to attend a session of Ukraine's national security council.
"We will approve a number of strategic documents, including military doctrine," Klimkin said, adding that these will notably pave the way for NATO to open an embassy in Ukraine.
Russia has long been wary of closer ties between NATO and Ukraine, which is battling a separatist insurgency in the country’s east.
Residents of Zaporizhya have decided to support the Ukrainian national soccer team by dressing the city statue of Lenin in the team’s jersey and placing a scarf into his hand raised to the sky.
“The question of supporting our team unites older and younger generations. We can’t take down the statue of Lenin simply to take it down. We have to engage in a dialogue about what will take its place instead. De jure this monument doesn’t exist, however physically it does. We have to prepare public opinion,” said Yaroslav Hryshyn, one of the organizers of the event.
Lenin was dressed in a jersey with the number 12 on its back -- team fans wear jerseys with this number.