Internal Security News

• (ITAR-TASS) Since the beginning of the military operation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, 325 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 1,232 have been wounded, the press secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, Andrei Lysenko, told a briefing.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The resignation of Arseny Yatseniuk from the post of Ukraine's prime minister will not influence the course of the anti-terrorist operation in the country's eastern regions, the spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A motorway bridge connecting the Kalyninsky and Mykytivsky districts of Horlivka, Donetsk region, was blown up again by insurgents.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Shots were heard in the area of ​​the Donetsk airport and residents reported explosions in the area of ​​the nearby cities of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka.
   

Diplomacy News

• (Interfax Ukraine) The EU Council decided to reinforce EU sanctions in view of the situation in Ukraine. The EU Council added to the sanctions list 15 individuals and 18 companies responsible for actions undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Washington fully shares responsibility for bloodshed in Ukraine. “It is indisputable that it was the United States that backed an anti-constitutional coup in Kiev and then in essence pushed the regime that established there toward a violent punishment of the Russian-speaking population, which firmly demands that its legitimate rights be observed,” the ministry said in a statement.
   
• Ukrainian and American officials accused Russia of stepping up its involvement in eastern Ukraine, unleashing artillery attacks on Ukrainian positions from Russian territory and amassing heavy weapons along the border that Kiev and its allies fear could be pushed across to reinforce the rebels and prolong the fighting.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Moscow rejects the recent “unfounded public accusations” made by the United States over Ukraine and regrets that Washington continues to intensify tensions in bilateral relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian media reported that Human Rights Watch experts confirmed that Ukraine uses the Grad rocket launcher systems in the southeast, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov said on Friday. “This evidence should convince the world community to make the Ukrainian authorities stop the punitive operation,” he wrote on Twitter.
   
• (RIA Novosti) A team of investigators from Russia’s Investigative Committee on Friday came under targeted mortar fire from the Ukrainian side of the border.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia says it has evidence that Ukraine used phosphorus bombs on populated areas in the country’s east, the deputy head of operations at Russia’s General Staff said.
   
• Ukrainian nationalist leader Dmytro Yarosh was placed on Interpol’s wanted list at the request of Russian authorities.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine will not extradite the far-right radical nationalist Dmytro Yarosh, the chief of Interpol’s bureau in Ukraine said.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Six houses were damaged in Russia’s Rostov region after Ukraine’s shelling, a spokesperson for Russia’s Border Guard Service told RIA Novosti.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The United States will provide financial support to Ukrainian government troops by allocating them $33 million by the end of this year, US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said.
   

Governance News

• (Interfax Ukraine) The Verkhovna Rada closed its plenary meeting. An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that while closing the parliament meeting Deputy Speaker Ruslan Koshulynsky noted: "The next meeting will be held at 1000 on August 12."

--

More Stories 

Greg Austin interprets Putin’s latest speeches and sheds light on Russia’s point-of-view. Read more

Writing for New Europe, EWI's Professorial Fellow Greg Austin argues that the creation of the Eurasian Union—a union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan—will test relations with the EU. Read more 

There were clear warning signs to the Ukraine crisis, says Greg Austin. "If we want to get that future plan right, we do need to have some understanding of what went wrong." Read more 

Greg Austin writes "The Luhansk Border: A New Crisis Point," for New Europe. Read more 

EWI’s Danila Bochkarev busts some prevailing myths and explains why the Ukraine crisis is a political earthquake and not an energy quake. Read more 

Bochkarev says the recent China-Russia gas deal is more practical than political. Read more