Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says Ukraine "is flatly denying assistance to Moscow in delivering humanitarian aid to Lugansk and Donetsk where the situation is sliding into a humanitarian disaster," in the words of ITAR-TASS.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka expressed relief that sanctions against Russia so far are "aimed at a limited number of areas" but warned in a statement quoted from by Reuters, "Neither for the European Union, nor for Russia, is it favorable to get into a drawn-out trade war and that some new economic and political Iron Curtain appears on Ukraine's eastern border."
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov also accused Kyiv and its allies of blocking the international investigation into the MH17 crash. Here's Interfax:
"This requirement [of compliance with the UN Security Council resolution on a thorough investigation] is being grossly violated by the Ukrainian military with the connivance of a number of Kyiv's Western protectors, which prevents international experts from swiftly starting their work," the Russian minister said.
From AP:
Football clubs in the Crimea region annexed by Russia could play in the Russian leagues this season, the Russian Football Union president Nikolai Tolstykh said on Wednesday.
Tolstykh told local media they will make a decision on Thursday about moving clubs from the cities of Simferopol, Sevastopol and Yalta into the Russian third tier.
Since Russia seized the peninsula in February, it has registered five new clubs there. The Simferopol and Sevastopol teams are using stadiums occupied by Ukrainian Premier League teams last season.
The Ukrainian Football Federation says Russia has no right to register clubs on what Ukraine considers its territory.
Interfax quotes an aide to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as suggesting the trilateral meeting (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) that Belarus has offered to host could happen this week.
"The problem was where to meet, and so an idea arose that might help this matter materialize - to hold such a meeting in Minsk.
Yesterday the president of Ukraine had a telephone conversation with the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the result of that conversation was the position of Belarus that it and Lukashenko personally could help organize such a meeting," Valery Chaly, deputy chief of the presidential staff, told a briefing.
"I see this as a very partner-like move on the part of the Belarusian leadership," Chaly said, adding that he thought such a meeting might take place within days.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, has welcomed the overture from Minsk.