Internal Security News

• Heavy fighting erupted in a suburb of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, with civilian casualties reported.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s eastern city of Luhansk was facing an environmental catastrophe, as Kyiv's ongoing military operation had halted waste removal from the city and water disinfection, the local authorities reported.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine is on the brink of humanitarian disaster, stating that the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration, and the ICRC have confirmed these concerns.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The government of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic established a state commission on humanitarian affairs.
   

Diplomacy News

• The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Ukrainian authorities have been avoiding cooperation in tackling the humanitarian issues of the population in southeast Ukraine, and called this an "absolutely irresponsible" position.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The United Nations Security Council was set to hold a Russian-initiated emergency meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. The open meeting was put on its daily agenda on 5 August and was to be opened immediately after a closed-door conference on sanctions against North Korea due to begin at 16:00 New York time (midnight in Moscow). As a rule, such consultations last for about an hour.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia will persistently promote the initiative on setting up a humanitarian mission in violence-torn eastern Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
   
• Ukraine expressed alarm about a new buildup of Russian forces on its border, intensifying a conflict the United Nations agency for refugees says has displaced hundreds of thousands.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A total of 33,000 Russian military and 160 tanks were staying on the territory adjacent to the border with Ukraine, according to the NSDC.
   
• A NATO official told CNN that Russia has 20,000 troops stationed close to its border with Ukraine, nearly double the number it had a week ago.
   
• Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev threatened to retaliate for the grounding of a subsidiary of national airline Aeroflot because of EU sanctions, with one newspaper reporting that European flights to Asia over Siberia could be banned.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has told the government to retaliate against Western sanctions.
   
• Russian President Vladimir Putin, senior government officials, and many lawmakers were expected to visit Crimea during the week of August 11, in a defiant show of support for Russia's annexation of the Black Sea region despite tough new Western economic sanctions.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Kyiv's Pechersky District Court was considering a petition on the arrest of several Russian citizens, including of businessman Konstantin Malafeyev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and State Duma deputies Gennady Zyuganov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Sergei Mironov, after which they would be placed on the interstate and international wanted list.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) In response to the call of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the Latvian Foreign Ministry is ready to recognize the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics as terrorist organizations, Latvian Ambassador to Ukraine Argita Daudze said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Japanese Cabinet of Ministers formally endorsed the sanctions list against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was expected to pay a visit to Kyiv on August 7.
   

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