RFE's Crimea Desk is reporting that the International Civil Aviation Organization has confirmed the airspace over Crimea belongs to Ukraine.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Maksym Burbak announced the ruling at a Kyiv press conference today. Burbak also said the ICAO refuted allegations published in Russian media that the organization is currently holding negotiations with Moscow to switch the airspace to Russian control.
According to the ruling, responsibility for security and control of Crimean airspace remains with Ukraerorukh, the Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise.
"Ukrainska Pravda" reports that the Verkhovna Rada committee investigating the shooting deaths of Euromaidan protesters in Kyiv on February 18-20 has concluded that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry destroyed evidence implicating ministry special forces.
In a newly published report, committee chairman Hennadiy Moskal says that on February 22 he asked newly appointed Interior Minister Arsen Avakov to provide documentation of any weapon use by members of the Sokol and Berkut special forces, as well as members of the armory department as several units of ministry troops.
Avakov reportedly promised to provide the documentation but failed to follow through.
Approximately 75 people were killed on February 18-20, most of them unarmed protesters.
Well, this was unexpected.
Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will take protective measures in trade relations with Georgia and Ukraine if their parliaments ratify their association agreements with the European Union.
Read more on Russia's pressure points in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova here.
Traces of the Donetsk People's Republic in Kramatorsk.
From our news desk:
-- A court in Moscow has extended the pretrial arrest of Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea and accused of plotting terrorist attacks.
The Lefortovo District Court's spokeswoman said on July 7 that Sentsov's pretrial detention had been prolonged until October 11.
Sentsov and three other Ukrainian citizens were arrested in May on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in Crimea's major cities -- Simferopol, Yalta, and Sevastopol.
Last month, the European Film Academy, the chairman of the Ukrainian Association of Cinematographers, Serhiy Trymbach, and prominent Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to assist in Sentsov's release.
Interfax-Ukraine reporting that members of Ukrainian National Guard have discovered caches of ammunition for Russian-made sniper rifles in Slovyansk.
Activists planning auto-protest outside Akhmetov's dacha on July 8.
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.
