Good morning, we're starting up the live blog.
This ends our live-blogging for July 3, check back tomorrow for continuing coverage.
Slovyansk is burning.
From our news desk:
New Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey has vowed to hold "a victory parade" in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.
Addressing parliament on July 3, Colonel General Heletey said: "Believe me, there will be a victory parade -- there will be for sure -- in Ukraine's Sevastopol."
Heletey was approved by lawmakers after being recommended by President Petro Poroshenko.
A new head of the joint chiefs of staff, Lieutenant General Viktor Muzhenko, was also appointed.
Meanwhile in eastern Ukraine, government forces pressed their offensive against pro-Russian separatists after the expiration of a 10-day cease-fire late on June 30.
In Berlin, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France agreed on July 2 to work on another truce, with talks starting on July 5 at the latest. (ITAR-TASS and the BBC)
Excellent investigative report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) documenting illicit sales of RPGs and other weapons to Ukraine by a Moldovan criminal group with access to Russian armories in Transdniester.