The mayor of Kremenchuk, an industrial hub on the Dnieper that's about 200 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, was shot and killed this morning. Kursk-born Oleh Babayev was an ethnic Azeri and ally of Yulia Tymoshenko. He was elected mayor in 2010.
The Russian Foreign Ministry says additional sanctions imposed by the European Union over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis threaten cooperation over security issues.
"The additional sanction list is direct evidence that the EU countries have set a course for fully phasing out cooperation with Russia over the issues of international and regional security. This includes the fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, organized crime, and other new challenges and dangers," a ministry statement said.
"We are sure the decisions will be greeted enthusiastically by international terrorists."
Here's the "Novaya gazeta" cover that has everyone talking, showing the motorcade of hearses carrying victims of the MH17 downing in eastern Ukraine and titled, "Forgive us, Netherlands." Powerful, and daring, stuff.
Seems odd that, with all that is happening, the Russian Embassy in London would choose this point -- an alleged misidentification of Putin's daughter -- to protest to the editor of the "Daily Mirror."
@BishopK also notes that the Dutch Police, via this Twitter feed, will be posting updates in Dutch and English as they help secure MH17 crash site and investigate.
Here's more via agencies and our newsroom on the apparent deportation by Ukraine of British national and RT contributor Graham Phillips, after considerable concern at his disappearance while covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
A British freelance reporter working for Russia's RT television in eastern Ukraine says he has been deported and banned from the country for three years.
Graham Phillips told the Kremlin-backed TV channel on July 26 that he was "in Poland" after Ukrainian forces deported him.
He says he has been deported and banned for three years because "I work for RT."
Phillips says he was detained July 22 while trying to cover fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists near Donetsk airport.
He claims that after several interrogations he was taken to Kyiv and then to the Polish border, where he was "dumped out."
This isn’t the first time Phillips has claimed he was detained in Ukraine. In May, he was reportedly seized at a military checkpoint near Mariupol and held for 36 hours.
Phillips' claims could not be independently verified.
Based on reports by rt.com, AFP, ITAR-TASS