Our Ukrainian Service says that with fighting continuing in Luhansk on the third and final day of mourning for the victims of attacks last week, authorities there are encouraging residents to stay home and avoid traveling in the city.
A number of videos made by Russian media are circulating of these two purported Ukrainian reservists after their capture by separatists.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dismisses the latest sanctions as ineffectual in resolving the situation in Ukraine. Such moves are "evil" and have never cowed any country, he adds. Such punitive measures will amplify anti-U.S. sentiments, he claims, citing the experience of "the 1980s."
Via Reuters:
International payment systems Visa and MasterCard said the new U.S. sanctions did not affect their operations in Russia.
Paul Goble quotes extensively from a piece by Russian scholar Vladimir Pasthukov in polit.ru describing Putin as the "'Last Soldier' Of A Dying Empire."
President Poroshenko used a speech yesterday marking Ukraine's declaration of sovereignty 24 years ago to assure the country that while "today our country is enduring an ordeal, but I firmly believe the Ukrainian people respond with decency to all challenges. We will win. A sovereign and united Ukraine will become a modern European state -- wealthy and powerful," according to the National Security and Defense Council's Information-Analytical Center's website.