Hard to imagine this happening now, given the punitive import ban on the United States and Europe the Kremlin followed up with this week. But the Polish ambassador to Washington in this video appeal urgesthe U.S. to open its market to his country's apples, following the apple ban Moscow imposed on it last week (h/t @EdwardLucas). Now this just seems quaint.
Russian investigators have requested that five Ukrainian soldiers be arrested on suspicion of war crimes for what the Russian Investigative Committee describes as the "use of heavy offensive weapons of indiscriminate effect" when allegedy firing on the cities of Krasnopartizansk and Krasnodon in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.
The committee, in a statement posted on the Internet, named the individuals and identified them as a battalion commander, a tank battalion commander, a "headquarters chief," a squadron commander, and a deputy commander. The Russian Investigative Committee cited "testimony of other Ukrainian servicemen who served in this brigade," and said the five men denied the charges.
Here's AFP on the story:
Russian investigators said on Friday they had detained five Ukrainian soldiers on suspicion of war crimes in eastern Ukraine, after they crossed into Russia earlier this week.
The soldiers went across the border in a huge contingent of over 400 servicemen on Monday.
Moscow claimed they had surrendered and were switching sides but Kiev said they were forced to cross after running out of ammunition. Most of the men since gone back to Ukraine.
Investigators questioned the troops as witnesses in a probe into war crimes, charges which can carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
The investigators said they had proof that the solders used heavy weapons indiscriminately, wounding or killing at least 10 civilians and destroying 20 homes.
The alleged crimes took place between July 19 and August 3 in the Lugansk region of Ukraine, one of the areas gripped by fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Kremlin separatists, they said.
According to this Russian news agency, "prominent French politician" Jacques Myard, the mayor of Maisons-Laffitte, a Paris suburb, has called the European sanctions on Russia "economic suicide" and encouraged the reconition of Crimea as Russian territory.
It's hard to say how influential he is, but his Wikipedia entry has only this paragraph:
Myard made international news when on July 17, 2012, just days before the vote on a new national sexual harassment bill, male lawmakers in the National Assembly including Myard hooted and made catcalls as Housing Minister Cécile Duflot, wearing a floral dress, spoke about an architecture project. Myard told L'Express that the hoots were a way of "paying homage to this woman's beauty."
Ukraine applies its own sanctions on Russia, our news desk reports:
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the Ukrainian government is proposing that sanctions be imposed by Ukraine against 172 citizens from Russia and other countries and 65 Russian companies who were financing "terrorism" in the country.
Yatsenyuk said the recommendations would be passed on to the National Defense and Security Council and that he expected parliament next week (August 12) to pass laws to legalize the proposed moves.
Yatsenyuk said that sanctions will include asset freezes, banning transit of all types of goods across Ukraine and withdrawing business licences.
Asked if sanctions could affect Russian gas transit, Yatsenyuk said the move could possibly mean halting "all types of transit, from air flights to transit of resources." (Reuters, AFP and Interfax)
The "humanitarian intervention" drumbeat continues in Moscow...
More on today's explosion in central Kyiv:
LATEST on fighting in eastern Ukraine, from our news desk:
Officials say at least 19 people have been killed and 97 injured in fighting between government troops and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said 15 soldiers and border guards were killed and 79 wounded in fighting near the Russian border in the Luhansk region.
The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of supplying the separatists with heavy weapons and fighters.
The rebels, in turn, accuse government forces of firing Grad missiles on civilian quarters in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Separatist officials said late on August 7 that four civilians were killed and 18 injured in artillery attacks on Donetsk.
Luhansk authorities warned that the situation in the city was critical because water, electricity, and communication systems remain cut off for the sixth consecutive day. (AP, AFP, and dpa)
Here's today's map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine according to the National Security and Defense Council:
