Strategic Trust-Building

• Parts of eastern Ukraine were wracked by fierce fighting as government troops sought to snatch back territory from separatist rebels, while a Russian aid convoy to the hard-hit city of Luhansk began to make tentative steps toward its destination.
   
• Pro-Russian separatists struck two helicopters as well as a jet with portable air defense systems in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.
   
• Most part of the town of Ilovaisk in the Donetsk oblast was under the control of Ukrainian troops.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov denied rumors and speculation about Russian plans to intrude into southeast Ukraine under the pretext of delivering relief aid.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Four French volunteers joined fighters from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic this week.
   
• An NSDC spokesman said that the peace plan of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for de-escalating situation in eastern part of the country remains in effect and could start to work even before negotiations in Minsk take place.
   
• The initiators of the establishment of an international battalion for participation in the military actions on the east of Ukraine addressed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asking that he assist in the settlement of this issue.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko could make a decision to disband the Verkhovna Rada on August 24, Independence Day.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) About 70 trucks of the Russian humanitarian convoy were waiting for a permission to cross into Ukraine near the Donetsk border checkpoint in the Rostov region, but the ICRC was not yet decided on how to deliver the cargo. 
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) An NSDC spokesman said that Ukrainian forces seized two BMD-2 airborne fighting vehicles of the Russian Pskov Airborne Division in a battle near Luhansk.

Internal Security News

• (ITAR-TASS) Nine civilians were killed and 13 were wounded as two districts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk came under powerful artillery fire.
   
• Ukrainian troops took control of a large part of the rebel stronghold in Luhansk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) In the past 24 hours, clashes in Ukraine's Donetsk region claimed 34 civilian lives and injured other 29 people, the Donetsk regional state administration information policy and media department said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian army retook over half of the town of Ilovaisk, though fighting continued.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The situation in Luhansk remained critical and fighting continued in the city, the press service for the Luhansk city council reported. "People have been without electricity, water, mobile and landline communications for 18 days. Power supply cannot be restored due to permanent military action on the territory of the city."
   
• (ITAR-TASS) A senior rebel official claimed that the Ukrainian army fired a ballistic missile at the central part of the city of Makeyevka in the embattled eastern Donetsk region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) An advisor to the Interior Ministry stated that a total of 2,717 police officers have been dismissed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and this process will continue.

Diplomacy News

• (Interfax Ukraine) The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine had no confirmation of reports that a Russian convoy of armored vehicles had entered Luhansk.

• The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow has done everything to guarantee the full security of the humanitarian convoy to residents of eastern Ukraine and favors a swift beginning to the mission.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The first eight trucks with Russian humanitarian aid for south-eastern regions of Ukraine began customs clearance procedures at the border crossing point with Ukraine in the southern Rostov region.
   
• The warring sides in Ukraine had only provided safety guarantees for a small advance group of officers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that will inspect the purported itinerary of the Russian humanitarian convoy but the main group had yet to receive such guarantees in full.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Verkhovna Rada chairman Oleksandr Turchynov alleged that the Russian authorities need an armed conflict in eastern Ukraine to divert the attention of Russians from the crisis in Russia itself.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The European Commission confirmed its plans to attend a Eurasian Customs Union-EU-Ukraine summit in Minsk on August 26. 

Internal Security News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian forces were continuing to conduct heavy street fighting against militants in the city of Luhansk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Fifteen bodies were found where a convoy of civilian refugees was shelled in Luhansk region on August 18. 
   
• A rebel source told the BBC that no one had survived the attack. Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels of attacking the convoy but they had denied involvement. A rebel source claimed that everyone in the convoy was killed when two buses carrying wounded civilians came under fire from foreign mercenaries fighting for the government.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Three people were killed and dozens injured as the town of Makeyevka near Donetsk came under the Ukrainian military's artillery fire.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The government of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic guaranteed safe passage for Russia’s humanitarian convoy and the Red Cross employees accompanying it.
   

Diplomacy News

• (ITAR-TASS) Deliveries from Russia's humanitarian aid convoy for embattled east Ukraine were suspended again, Andrey Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia and southeastern Ukraine independence supporters have fulfilled their objectives concerning the safety of the humanitarian convoy and Moscow hopes that Kyiv is not trying to deliberately disrupt the aid mission.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission working on the Russian-Ukrainian border has not seen any weapons crossing between the countries, an OSCE spokesman working on the Russian side of the border said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will visit a session in January but will refuse to continue working there in 2015 if sanctions are prolonged, head of the delegation Alexei Pushkov said.
   
• Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Russian president Vladimir Putin were set to meet the week of August 25th as part of a summit in Minsk between the Eurasian Customs Union, the EU, and Ukraine. 
   
• (RIA Novosti) A Kremlin spokesman said that Moscow will consider additional protective measures if the West continues its “destructive” sanction policy.

Internal Security News

• Ukrainian forces made advances against rebel fighters over the weekend, regaining control over the strategic town of Yasynuvata in Donetsk in the southeastern part of the country. They also made gains in Luhansk in the eastern part of Ukraine. The Ukrainian army entered Donetsk and raised the Ukrainian flag in front of the district's police offices.

• Ukrainian government forces conducted a series of successful offensives in the area of the anti-terrorist operation, encircling the town of Horlivka in Donetsk region and taking full control of a section of the M-04 highway near Luhansk.

• (Interfax Ukraine) Russian humanitarian aid will reach the Izvaryne-Donetsk border checkpoint in batches and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will escort the humanitarian convoys after they are cleared by border guards and customs, Ukrainian State Fiscal Service head Anatoliy Makarenko reported.

• (ITAR-TASS) Ukrainian armed forces encircled Luhansk and now control several of the city’s districts.

• Pro-Russian gunmen opened fire with mortars and multiple Grad rocket launchers on a column of refugees in the settlements of Khriaschuvate and Novosvitlivka in Luhansk region. “Many people were killed, including women and children,” said NSDC spokesman Andriy Lysenko. A spokesman for Ukraine's national security council sad "dozens" of civilians were killed in the refugee convoy, which was flying white flags. 

• (Interfax Ukraine) The Donetsk water and draining system authorities urged residents of Donetsk to stock up on water.

• (Interfax Ukraine) Nine Ukrainian military service members were killed in the military-operation zone in east Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

• (RIA Novosti) The death penalty was introduced in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People's Republic” for the gravest crimes, the republic’s press center reported.

  (ITAR-TASS) 22,000 Ukrainian citizens fled war-torn Donetsk and Luhansk between August 8 and 15, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

  (RIA Novosti) Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov alleged that “the Kyiv government fails to control numerous armed groups, including the Right Sector.”

Diplomacy News

• A convoy of Russian trucks bearing humanitarian aid continued its journey toward the Ukrainian border amid fears that it could be used as a pretext for an invasion. The convoy, with over 200 trucks, took off towards the direction of Rostov early on the morning of August 14, fuelling speculation that the trucks would try to enter Ukraine through separatist territory instead of an official Kyiv-controlled border crossing as originally promised.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A spokesman for the NSDC said that the Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid will be blocked unless it is inspected by Ukrainian border guards and customs officers in the presence of the ICRC.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian President Vladimir Putin described the current situation in Ukraine as “bloody chaos”, pledging that Moscow will make every effort to stop the conflict.
   
• Putin said that Russia would stand up for itself but not at the cost of confrontation with the outside world, a conciliatory note after months of tough rhetoric over the crisis in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanded a full list of items contained in Russia’s relief convoy bound for southeast Ukraine.
   
• A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that a senior official of the ICRC will travel to Kyiv and Moscow for talks on the delivery of Russian aid to eastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission said that OSCE observers have not detected any troop movement on the Russian-Ukrainian border at the Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov dismissed Ukrainian media outlets' reports that Russian military vehicles crossed the border with Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that she does not accept Russia's actions committed in relation to Ukraine, and that she would never accept the annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton convened an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for August 15 in Brussels focusing on major crises in Iraq and Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The U.S. delegation at the United Nations promised to “positively influence Kyiv” in the issue of relief aid delivery to eastern Ukraine, said Russian U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin. Churkin also stated that the United Nations is becoming more unbiased in assessing the situation in eastern Ukraine and has begun to sound alarm about possible attack on the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Diplomacy News

• (ITAR-TASS) Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Olexander Turchynov said that Ukraine can deliver all reforms required for its joining the European Union within five years. “We are setting the aim to join the European Union within five years,” he said. “Ukraine should become a member of the European Union and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian FM Lavrov said that Moscow has the right to make decisions on security measures on its territory because hostilities continue a few kilometers away from its border with Ukraine.
   
• The Prime Minister of Finland said that the European Union and NATO are unable to give military support to Ukrainian troops fighting pro-Russian separatists.
   
• Russia's foreign minister said that full agreement has been reached on the delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine after talks in Berlin, but no deal had been reached on achieving a ceasefire.
   
• The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was hearing three cases against Russia under an initiative of the Ukrainian government.

Internal Security News

• (ITAR-TASS) The Donetsk-based “Novorossiya” news agency reported that Igor Strelkov, the defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, was badly wounded and in serious condition. An official from the Donetsk People’s Republic later stated that the media reports were wrong. “This is complete nonsense, a new round of information warfare. Igor Strelkov is alive and well.” Later on August 14, the website of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic announced that Igor Strelkov resigned amid rumors of his serious injury or death.
   
• Valeriy Bolotov, the leader of the pro-Russian separatist rebels in the Luhansk region, announced his resignation, saying he was injured and could not carry on in his role, becoming the second senior rebel to quit in the space of seven days.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Twenty clashes had occurred in the army operation zone in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, leaving nine servicemen dead and 18 wounded.
   
• Heavy shelling was heard in the rebel-held city of Donetsk as a Russian convoy approached the Ukrainian border.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk came under Grad missile fire overnight on August 13. Additionally, one civilian was killed and another 11 wounded in the night shelling of the town of Mospino near Donetsk.
   
• (RIA Novosti) More than 22,400 people had signed an online petition calling on the United Nations to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk.
   
• Ukraine's National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council urged television providers to stop relaying the Russian version of the Euronews channel.

Diplomacy News

• A convoy of Russian trucks bearing humanitarian aid continued its journey toward the Ukrainian border amid fears that it could be used as a pretext for an invasion. The convoy, with over 200 trucks, took off towards the direction of Rostov early on the morning of August 14, fuelling speculation that the trucks would try to enter Ukraine through separatist territory instead of an official Kyiv-controlled border crossing as originally promised.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A spokesman for the NSDC said that the Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid will be blocked unless it is inspected by Ukrainian border guards and customs officers in the presence of the ICRC.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian President Vladimir Putin described the current situation in Ukraine as “bloody chaos”, pledging that Moscow will make every effort to stop the conflict.
   
• Putin said that Russia would stand up for itself but not at the cost of confrontation with the outside world, a conciliatory note after months of tough rhetoric over the crisis in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanded a full list of items contained in Russia’s relief convoy bound for southeast Ukraine.
   
• A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that a senior official of the ICRC will travel to Kyiv and Moscow for talks on the delivery of Russian aid to eastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission said that OSCE observers have not detected any troop movement on the Russian-Ukrainian border at the Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov dismissed Ukrainian media outlets' reports that Russian military vehicles crossed the border with Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that she does not accept Russia's actions committed in relation to Ukraine, and that she would never accept the annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton convened an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for August 15 in Brussels focusing on major crises in Iraq and Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The U.S. delegation at the United Nations promised to “positively influence Kyiv” in the issue of relief aid delivery to eastern Ukraine, said Russian U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin. Churkin also stated that the United Nations is becoming more unbiased in assessing the situation in eastern Ukraine and has begun to sound alarm about possible attack on the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Internal Security News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian troops, including special task battalions, liberated three towns in the Luhansk region – Pervomaisk, Kalynove, and Komyshuvakha.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian government was preparing humanitarian aid for the country's eastern regions that would be sent there on Thursday, August 14, said Iryna Heraschenko, the Ukrainian president's commissioner for the peaceful resolution of Donbas crisis.
   
• Twelve Ukrainian nationalist fighters were killed and an unknown number taken captive when rebels ambushed their bus, a spokesman for their group said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Five civilians were reportedly injured as a result of overnight shelling in the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The death toll from Kyiv’s military operation in southeastern Ukraine nearly doubled from July 26 to August 10 and is now 2,086, Reuters said, citing a UN human rights spokeswoman.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) noted the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine, stating that at least 70 civilians are dying or receiving wounds in east Ukraine every day.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) A spokesman for the Ukrainian NSDC said that Ukraine will take measures to ensure security of the Russian humanitarian convoy to its eastern regions but will not stop the military operation

Diplomacy News

• A Russian “humanitarian aid” convoy of nearly 300 trucks was nearing the Ukraine border, despite warnings from Kyiv the convoy may not be allowed in.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that Ukraine can only accept humanitarian assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross. An NSDC spokesman said that Ukraine will ensure the security of a humanitarian convoy if it is formed by the ICRC.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A Russian humanitarian convoy will not be allowed to pass through the Kharkiv region's territory, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Russia notified the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the convoy of Russian trucks was approaching the border with Ukraine, but had not reported the contents of the cargo, according to the organization.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine was claiming that the humanitarian convoy route had not been coordinated and making new logistical demands. Russian FM Lavrov subsequently stated that it agreed with all of Kyiv’s suggestions regarding the humanitarian mission to the south-east of Ukraine and corrected the convoy route.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Kyiv and Washington will agree to Russia’s humanitarian aid delivery to affected areas in eastern Ukraine if Moscow accepts the Ukrainian government’s conditions, US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf confirmed.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s reaction to Ukraine’s fire attacks on Russian territory should be reserved and balanced, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs, said, alleging that Kyiv wants “a very long conflict” in hope of enlisting support from Europe and the United States. “We may provoke the Ukraine authorities to start this conflict if our planes begin patrolling Ukraine’s airspace.”
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The EU's Political and Security Committee stressed the need to address the humanitarian situation in Ukraine in full respect of international humanitarian law and principles and with the clear consent of Ukrainian authorities.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) President Vladimir Putin arrived in Sevastopol for a meeting with members of the Russian Security Council.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia is not going to suspend its World Trade Organization membership and will continue defending its interests in the organization, a source in the Russian Economic Development Ministry told RIA Novosti.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) German Chancellor Angela Merkel called to continue negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite Western sanctions on Russia to settle the crisis in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The EU sanctions imposed on Russia and Moscow’s response action have dealt a hard blow to the Finnish economy.
   
• The Russian consumer-rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor announced its decision to suspend imports of certain types of Ukrainian-made alcoholic drinks from Aug. 15.

Internal Security News

• Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross will lead a humanitarian convoy supported by the European Union, the United States and Russia to the country's conflict-torn eastern city of Luhansk, according to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Luhansk will be a final destination point for the humanitarian aid delivery to southeast Ukraine residents, the Vice-Premier of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian troops were preparing to simultaneously launch an offensive on on Shakhtarsk, Torez and Snizhne in the country's eastern regions.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Separatist fighters in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic amassed over 200 armored combat vehicles preparing for the counterstrike against Ukrainian troops near the city of Donetsk.
   
• Six Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 31 more injured in the area of the military operation in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
   
• The population of Luhansk still has no access to food supplies, power, water, and fixed or mobile telephone services, the city administration's press service reported, describing the situation in the city as "critical".

Diplomacy News

• A Russian convoy of 280 trucks headed for eastern Ukraine carrying "humanitarian supplies" for the people of conflict-torn region, Russian news agencies reported. The Ukrainian government stated that it would not allow any Russian aid into the country if it was accompanied by the Russian military or members of Russia's emergencies ministry. A Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman later told the BBC that the Russian trucks would not cross the border, and that it was up to the Red Cross to decide what to do with the aid.
   
• (RIA Novosti) However, a source told RIA Novosti that the arrival of the Russian humanitarian convoy at the Ukrainian border was expected on Wednesday, August 13.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Francois Hollande in a telephone conversation expressed serious concern over continuing degradation of the situation in Ukraine and worsening of humanitarian problems in the southeast, the Kremlin press service said.
   
• US President Barack Obama agreed in a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi that any Russian intervention in Ukraine, including actions "under the guise of 'humanitarian' assistance," would result in further Western sanctions on Russia's already teetering economy.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso during a telephone conversation warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian.
   
• The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called Russia’s intention to hold a meeting in Crimea of the top Russian leadership with the participation of President Vladimir Putin ‘unacceptable.’
   
•  (RIA Novosti) The Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case over the detention of Russian photographer Andrei Stenin.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Malaysia was planning to station two police officers – one in Ukraine and one in the Netherlands – to continue the investigation into the recent Malaysia Airlines plane crash near Donetsk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Norwegian authorities announced that they will join the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia on July 31.
   
• The Verkhovna Rada put on the agenda a government bill on international sanctions for the support and financing of terrorism in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at the Mashuk-2014 youth forum that Russia fears no sanctions and no attempts at exerting pressure on it will have effect.

Internal Security News

• Ukrainian government forces were preparing for the final stage of recapturing the city of Donetsk from pro-Russian separatist rebels after making significant gains that divided rebel forces.

   

• The situation in Luhansk remained unchanged - the regional capital had no power or water supplies for the ninth day, and neither landline nor mobile communications operated, the press service of the Luhansk City Council reported.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Luhansk was “on the verge of survival” due to its isolation, according to city officials.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The military operation in east Ukraine will not be stopped, and it will be best if residents leave Donetsk and Luhansk, a spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), said.
   
• Five artillery shells hit a high-security prison on the outskirts of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine overnight, sparking a riot in which 106 inmates escaped.
   
• Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said if the rebels wanted a ceasefire this meant "raising white flags and putting down their guns". There would be no truce while the Ukrainian army continued "punitive" military action, the rebels retorted in a statement.
   
• Radical nationalist group Right Sector seized an infantry fighting vehicle and a T-64 tank from separatists in the Donetsk region and was forming an armored unit as part of its military corps, Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh said.

Diplomacy News

• NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he saw a "high probability" that Russia could intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine and that NATO saw no sign that Moscow was pulling back its forces from close to the Ukrainian border.
   
• EU and US leaders warned Russia that more sanctions will follow if it "invades" Ukraine in the name of "humanitarian" aid.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Kyiv government’s military operation in eastern Ukraine seems to be aimed at “razing the southeast to the ground” and forcing the Russian-speaking population to flee.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross are sending a convoy with humanitarian cargo to eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said.
  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the West not to impede the delivery of the ‘urgent’ humanitarian aid. "Hopefully, this humanitarian action will take place soon under the aegis of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We have agreed all the details with the Ukrainian authorities. I hope that our Western partners will avoid putting up obstacles,” Lavrov said.
   
• EU chief Jose Manuel Barroso told Russia's Vladimir Putin not to carry out unilateral military action in eastern Ukraine under any pretext. The two leaders spoke over the phone as the Kremlin announced it was working with the Red Cross on sending a humanitarian aid convoy to the region.
   
• Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia will only send humanitarian aid to Ukraine if all involved parties agree to the move.
   
• A humanitarian convoy accompanied by Russian military personnel and military vehicles advanced toward the Ukrainian border with the intention of crossing into the country late on Aug. 8, but it stopped short of the frontier, a senior Ukrainian official said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The completion of exercises in Russia has not led to the de-escalation of the situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border, the speaker of the information-analytical center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) stated.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) About 15 Ukrainian shells exploded in Russia’s southern Rostov region some 500 metres from the border with Ukraine.
   
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden on the phone, discussing possible humanitarian aid for Luhansk. Poroshenko also indicated to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he was willing to send a humanitarian mission to the city.
   
• Five Ukrainian army officers who crossed over to Russian territory and were later detained returned to Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, expressed concern about reports that Andrei Stenin, a photojournalist with the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, went missing in eastern Ukraine on 5 August
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russian sanctions imposed against EU were in line with the WTO rules and had been imposed for national security reasons.

Internal Security News

• Ukrainian army units which had been trapped by separatists on the border with Russia broke out of the blockade and rejoined government forces, but 15 soldiers and border guards were killed in the operation.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Luhansk was completely disconnected from power and had no water, landline, and cell service for the past six days.
   
•  (RIA Novosti) The activists still occupying Kyiv’s Independence Square are protesting the new Kyiv authorities and the government’s military operation in eastern Ukraine, a Euromaidan representative said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) First Secretary of Ukrainian Communist Party Central Committee Pyotr Simonenko told reporters in Belarus that “Poroshenko gave orders to win at any cost before August 22 and to hold a parade in Kiev on August 24.” Ukraine’s Independence Day is celebrated on August 24.
   

Diplomacy News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said his government is introducing sanctions against 65 companies, mainly with Russian property and Russian residents, who support and finance terrorism and are directly involved in crimes committed on Ukrainian territory. Yatsenyuk also proposed imposing sanctions on 172 citizens of Russia and other countries.
   
• Investigators in Russia announced the arrest of five Ukrainian army officers for alleged war crimes as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine.The officers from Ukraine's 72nd Mechanised Brigade are apparently among hundreds of soldiers who crossed into Russia to flee from pro-Russian rebels.
   
• The United States warned Russia that any further intervention in Ukraine would be viewed as "an invasion of Ukraine."
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia considers Kyiv’s decision to suspend the ceasefire at the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing passenger plane in eastern Ukraine a violation of a UN Security Council resolution demanding the cessation of all combat action in the area.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia calls for an immediate stop to the fighting in Ukraine and for effective resolution of humanitarian problems, Russian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The International Red Cross backed the proposal of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to send relief aid to southeast Ukraine, Michelle Masson, the head of the ICRC delegation to Kiev, said.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media was checking reports that Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin went missing in Ukraine earlier in the week. Ukraine’s Security Service denied reports that it had detained Stenin.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Forty-eight of the 449 Ukrainian servicemen who crossed into Russia had already returned home from Russia, and another five remained on the Russian side of the border. Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said that Ukraine may use legal mechanisms for ensuring the return of Ukrainian servicemen held in Russia if diplomatic methods do not work.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Australian authorities were considering introducing new restrictive measures against Russia if Moscow decides to bring a "peacekeeping" contingent to Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia is ready to mediate talks between the Kyiv government and southeastern Ukraine “independence supporters”, the secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev told RIA Novosti.
   
• No serious results are expected from the next round of trilateral consultations between Ukraine, the European Union and Russia regarding Kyiv signing the association and free trade zone agreement with the EU, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at a briefing.
   
• Ukraine's security chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said that Kremlin-backed separatists on July 17 intended to shoot down a Russian passenger plane to give Moscow a pretext for conventionally invading Ukraine.
   

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