The EU presided over a meeting today about international support to Ukraine. These were the conclusions:
* The high level coordination meeting has provided an important opportunity for the international donors' community to further demonstrate its support for Ukraine in this crucial transition period following the events of last February and to reiterate its full support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
* Donors and international organisations recognised the importance of the recently signed Association Agreement, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (AA/DCFTA), which constitutes the new basis for EU-Ukraine relations aiming at fostering political association and economic integration with the EU as well as the Association Agenda, as the instrument to prepare for and facilitate the entry into force of the Association Agreement.
* The Ukrainian government set out their plans for a central authority to oversee the implementation of the AA/DCFTA and to ensure effective donor coordination as well as coherence and sustainability of their reform agenda.
* The Ukrainian side presented its current needs in terms of financial and technical assistance, including urgent measures for the stabilisation process in the South-East of Ukraine. Such measures, in particular, would include:
strengthening the state border;
ensuring addressing the urgent needs of internally displaced persons;
elaboration of a special post-conflict rehabilitation programme for Donbas region;
establishment of a Guarantee Fund.
More on Ukraine's gas debt from our news desk:
Russia's state-controlled Gazprom company says Ukraine's gas bill has risen another $838 million, after Kyiv failed to pay for deliveries during the first half of June.
Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said on July 8 that Ukraine's overall gas debt has now reached almost $5.3 billion.
Miller said that Ukraine's "unwillingness in principle" to pay for Russian gas showed that the transition to a prepayment system was the "only correct decision."
The new bill is calculated on a price of $485 per 1,000 cubic meters that came into effect in April.
Ukraine says it will pay the debt if the price is $326 per 1,000 cubic meters.
On June 16, Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine and said that in future, Kyiv would have to pay in advance for any new supplies of Russian gas.
Citing time constraints, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has decided to give up personally posting messages on his social media accounts. From this point on, his private messages will be erased and official messages will be provided by his staff. Poroshenko made the announcement on Facebook, although it is not clear if he is talking about additional accounts as well.
Poroshenko says he may still occasionally write personal posts, and will preface them with his initials, PP.
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko gave blood at a Kyiv donation center, saying it was a "sacred duty for everyone" to support Ukrainian troops fighting in the east.
"I believe in our victory," she said. "I know Ukraine will be integral, strong, and there will be peace in Ukraine. Today, I believe we are just a few steps away from peace."
Ukraine's Defense Ministry says it is doubling the salaries of soldiers participating in what Kyiv calls its "antiterrorist operations," or ATOs, in the east.
Deputy Defense Mininster Petro Mekhed said July 8 that cash has been allocated from Ukraine's reserve fund.
The new salaries for the soldiers deployed in emergency operations will break down as follows:
-- conscripts: between 3,172-3,208 hryvnia ($269-$272)
-- enlisted soldiers: 5,700-8,445 hryvnia ($483-$716)
-- sergeants: 6,780-12,477 hryvnia ($575-$1058)
-- officers: 9,360-16,710 hryvnia ($793-$1417)
RFE's Crimea Desk reports that the peninsula's pro-Moscow finance minister says it will cost $1.5 million to change Crimea's road signs from Ukrainian to Russian.
Speaking July 8 at a meeting of the pro-Russian Crimean parliament -- which is not recognized by the region's native ethnic Tatars -- Vladimir Levandovsky said the issue "is very important for us politically."