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.