From our news desk:
The Ukrainian judge who sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in jail has been added to the country's wanted list.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on July 7 that Judge Rodion Kireyev is wanted for "intentionally pronouncing an illegal verdict."
Kireyev disappeared from Kyiv last week.
Kireyev sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in jail on charges of abuse of power in 2011. Her supporters said the prosecution had been politically motivated.
Tymoshenko was released from prison in February after her political rival, President Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and fled the country following three months of antigovernment protests.
All eyes are on Donetsk, as separatists driven out of Slavyansk retreated there . Video from Reuters shows pro-Russian separatists controlling checkpoints on roads into the city as the military continued its offensive against rebels in other eastern cities. On July 6, militants and their supporters gathered in a central square in Donetsk to demand an end to the fighting.
More from our news desk on the Kyiv shooting:
At least four people have reportedly been injured in a shooting on Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Media reports in Ukraine cited unnamed sources in the Kyiv police on July 7 as saying that the shooting had taken place overnight on the square, known as the Maidan and which was the epicenter of three months of antigovernment protests.
The reports say at least four people were taken to hospitals after the shooting.
Maidan activists said on July 7 that some 30 men wearing balaclavas opened fire on the square overnight.
It is not clear who the attackers were.
Much of the protest encampment has remained on the square since February, even after a pro-Western government took office, with holdout demonstrators calling for the Maidan to continue until the new government implements important reforms.
Good morning. We're live blogging another day...
That ends our live-blogging for July 6, please check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
From our news desk:
A few thousand people have rallied in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in support of pro-Russian separatists forced there by the advancing Ukrainian Army.
Pavel Gubarev, the self-styled governor of the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic," told supporters in Donetsk's central square on July 6 that "we will begin a real partisan war around" the city of Donetsk.
Igor Girkin, aka Strelkov, told Russia's Life News that the separatists will "continue the combat operations [from Donetsk] and will try not to make the same mistakes we made in the past."
Girkin is known as the "defense minister" of the self-proclaimed people's republic and was based in the nearby city of Slovyansk until being flushed out along with hundreds of rebel fighters by Ukrainian military forces on July 5.
Fresh off its retaking of the large cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said on July 6 that Ukrainian forces were also in control of Artyomovsk and Druzhkovka, previously held by the rebels.
Heletey, who assumed his post last week, was in Slovyansk shortly after the military regained control of it and was shown on television speaking with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
He said Poroshenko told him the government's priority was to rebuild damaged infrastructure in the region and to reconnect vital utilities.
Poroshenko has called the retaking of Slovyansk a "turning point" in Ukraine's battle against the rebels but said the army operation to "liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will continue."
Meanwhile, Donetsk billionaire businessman Rinat Akhmetov said the Ukrainian military must not bomb the city of Donetsk, where most of the ousted fighters from Slovyansk are believed to have fled to.
He said the Donbas region must remain part of a "united Ukraine" but said Donetsk, nearby settlements, and the surrounding infrastructure "must not be destroyed" by the Ukrainian military in its fight against the separatists.
The self-declared chairman of the "Donetsk People's Republic," Denis Pushilin, said on July 6 from an undisclosed location in Russia that the "peacemaking activities of the Russian Federation would be more than to the point right now."
Pushilin, who one day earlier had criticized Russia for not coming to the separatists' aid, added in an interview with Russia's Dozhd TV that he had met with Russian ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
He said Zhirinovsky was helping to secure "humanitarian aid" for the Donbas region.
Meanwhile, fresh fighting was reported on the outskirts of the city of Luhansk, capital of the Luhansk region. (AFP, Reuters, Interfax, and ITAR-TASS)
Freshly painted.