Here's an item from Radio Prague on the Czech Republic's ratification of the Association Agreement with Kyiv:
Members of the Czech lower house of parliament approved an EU association agreement with Ukraine after several hours of rowdy debate on Thursday night. The final vote was 107 in favour with 29 against. Most of those opposed to the agreement came from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. Social Democrat members of parliament though also criticized the stance of Ukrainian nationalists and the continuing influence of oligarchs in Ukraine. The Czech Republic is one of the last four EU states to ratify the agreement. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, did so already in November last year. The Czech head of state still has to give his approval to the agreement.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is to visit Ukraine on September 21-22 at the invitation of President Petro Poroshenko.
"During the visit the secretary-general and the president will launch joint Ukraine-NATO exercises for Ukraine-2015 emergency relief at the Yavoriv training ground (Lviv Oblast)," said a statement issued by the presidential press service. "Also, at president’s invitation, the alliance head will take part in a National Security Council meeting on reforming Ukraine's security and defense sector."
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin called Stoltenberg's upcoming visit "significant and symbolic." According to him, the visit may be marked by establishing a NATO embassy in Ukraine.
It seems Kyiv has taken a dim view of Silvio Berlusconi quaffing a fancy bottle of Crimean wine (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Ukrainian prosecutors are prepared to file charges against the director of a winery in Russian-occupied Crimea for uncorking a 240-year old bottle for Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Putin and Berlusconi spent last weekend in Crimea, touring ancient ruins and visiting the peninsula's prized Massandra winery.
Massandra, which was nationalized following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, has rare wine and sherry dating back more than 200 years in its collection.
Russian television showed Berlusconi examining a bottle of 1775 Jerez de la Frontera wine from the cellars and asking the director -- Yanina Pavlenko -- if he could try it, and she uncorked the bottle for him and President Putin.
Ukrainian media quoted Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor-General for Crimea, Nazar Kholodnytskiy, as saying embezzlement charges against Pavlenko will be filed soon.
Massandra winery had five bottles of 1775 Jerez de la Frontera wine before the annexation.
Two other bottles of that wine were sold at Sotheby’s auction in 1990 and 2001. One bottle of the wine costs $100,000-$150,000.
(AP, UNIAN, Investigator.com.ua)
Here is a map of the latest situation in thre Donbas conflict zone, issued by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense (click image to enlarge):
