Russian FM Sergei Lavrov: Ukrainian authorities need to encourage the rebels for constructive dialogue. "The [rebels] are ready for that. But they are not ready... to [first] respond to categorical demands to surrender and give in."
Valeriy Chaly, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration: Kyiv will not negotiate with representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic. "This is unacceptable... the ball is not in Ukraine's court, because Ukraine has carried out all steps necessary for switching to peaceful settlement."
From our news desk:
-- Moscow's Basman District Court has charged Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov in abstentia with involvement in murders and other crimes.
Judge Natalya Mushnikova ruled on July 9 that Avakov must be held in pretrial detention for two months if he is ever brought to Russia.
Avakov is accused of organizing murders, the use of banned methods of warfare, kidnapping, and the obstruction of journalists' activities.
The same court arrested in absentia the governor of Ukraine's eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, Ihor Kolomoyskiy, on July 2 on the same charges.
Russia added Kolomoyskiy and Avakov to its wanted list on June 21. The charges come as Ukrainian forces continue their offensive against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
RFE's Crimea Desk reports that the head of the Moscow-backed Republic of Crimea will be selected from a list of three candidates submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The speaker of the pro-Russian parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, said lawmakers will have five days to consider the list before voting for a final candidate.
At least one of the candidates is expected to be the current head of the republic, Sergei Aksyonov.
Ukrainian Prime Mininster Arseniy Yatsenyuk says it will take 8.1 billion hryvnia ($691 million) to restore damaged infrastructure in Luhansk and Donetsk regions. "We will think about where to get that money."
A visual tour of the hastily abandoned separatist headquarters in Slovyansk City Hall... lots of St. George ribbons lying on the floor.
People in Donetsk complaining they can no longer get cash from ATMs.
Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, has confirmed that Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko is being held in Russia and has been accused of involvement in the killing of VGTRK journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in Luhansk.
Interfax cites Markin as saying Savchenko "crossed the Russian border without papers disguised as a refugee."
He says it was later found that she was a suspect in a criminal inquiry into the journalists' deaths on June 17.
Savchenko, a graduate of Ukraine's Air Force Academy and a first lieutenant in the Ukrainian Army, was captured in an ambush near the city of Schastye on June 18.
Her captors later released her video interrogation on the internet.
Savchenko is currently being held in a detention facility in Voronezh.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister has expressed its "resolute and categorical protest" over Savchenko's detention in Russia, and has called on the international community to condemn "Russia's unlawful actions."
Interfax reports that three-way gas talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the EU are set to resume in the second half of July.
Yuriy Prodan, Ukraine's energy and coal industry minister, said July 9 that he had "no information" about a precise date.
Russia's Gazprom yesterday announced that Kyiv had failed to meet its June deadline for gas payment and that its total debt now stands at almost $5.3 billion.
Ukraine has said it will pay the debt if it is recalculated at a lower price of $326 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Russia's bill, which includes Ukraine debt stretching back to 2013, is based on a price of $485 per 1,000 cubic meters, which came into effect in April.
Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot kidnapped by separatist forces and reportedly transferred to Russia, first came to international attention when she was featured by the United Nations Development Fund in 2009 as an example of UNDP's work supporting gender equality in Ukraine.
From their profile:
-- Nadiya Savchenko has fought for a career as a pilot with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. After being refused entry into the Kharkiv Air Force University in 1998, she entered the Armed Forces and served as a radio operator and a landing forces soldier. She reapplied to the Air Force University after six years and learned that a special authorization from the Defense Minister was necessary.
In the end, Nadiya graduated from the Air Force University and became a pilot. Until recently, a career for women in the army was limited. Now the Ukrainian Minister of Defense has an adviser on gender issues who is responsible for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in the Ukrainian military, and in 2010 the Minister introduced two orders removing restrictions for women to hold managerial positions in the Ukrainian military.