A few days ago we ran a photograph of city workers installing bike racks on a street in Donetsk.
The picture was possibly intended as a sign of normalization. But it's angered many locals, because the racks are located at the site where 22-year-old Svoboda activist Dmytro Chernyavksiy -- now considered one of the "heavenly hundred" -- was stabbed to death during clashes with pro-Russian protesters in March.
More from our news desk:
-- Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 27 injured in clashes with pro-Russian separatist rebels in the east of the country in the past 24 hours.
The Ukrainian military said one soldier was killed when rebels fired machine guns at a truck carrying soldiers near Luhansk.
Separately, two soldiers were killed when their armored vehicle was blown up by a landmine near Donetsk.
Poroshenko: We need to diversify energy sources and make the gas market transparent.
An EPA photograph of wounded Ukrainian paratroopers Ruslan Yarish (r) and Oleksandr Ponomaryov kissing their brides during joint weddings in the central military hospital in Kyiv on July 9.
Good morning! Today's live blog begins with an item from our news desk:
-- The European Union will reportedly add 11 new names to the list of persons targeted with asset freezes and travel bans over the Ukraine crisis.
EU diplomatic sources said on July 9 that the decision would be implemented by the end of the week.
Names will be published in the official journal of the European Union in the coming days.
The EU has already imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 61 people and two companies for participating in the separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine or in Russia's occupation and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
On July 9, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call urged Ukraine's Western-backed President Petro Poroshenko to move toward a political solution.
France said Poroshenko promised to exercise "restraint" in the campaign in eastern Ukraine.
But Poroshenko also said that the situation was aggravated by Russia, as militants continued to receive weapons from across the border.
This ends our live-blogging for July 9, please check back tomorrow for continued coverage.
Both those Russians who continue to press Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine and those who say that his policies in Ukraine have been a disaster are increasingly reviving an old Russian metaphor that cannot be encouraging to the current incumbent of the Kremlin.
Ever since Nicholas II and his advisors thought “a short victorious war” against Japan would work to their advantage and a defeat in that conflict sparked the Russian revolution of 1905, Russian analysts have often discussed Moscow’s foreign policy actions in terms of their consequences, often cataclysmic, at home.
Having Failed to Stage ‘Short Victorious War’ in Ukraine, Putin Faces Problems at Home
The latest report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's monitoring mission in Ukraine:
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele says the European Union is working toward abolishing visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens completely. In an interview with RFE/RL's Andrei Shary and Irina Lagunina on July 7 in Prague, Fuele said Russia's annexation of Crimea will have no effect on visa-free travel for Ukrainians and cited Moldova as an example of a successful visa liberalization process. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
