From our newsroom:
Russia's Defense Ministry said on August 8 it has finished military exercises in southern Russia which the United States has criticized as a "provocative" step amid the Ukraine crisis.
The Defense Ministry said that aircraft taking part in the exercises have been redeployed from temporary to their permanent bases, and antiaircraft missile units were also preparing to leave for their permanent positions.
It said the drills in the southern Astrakhan region 1,000 kilometers from the border with Ukraine has shown a "high level of cohesiveness" among troops.
The NATO military alliance says Russia has massed 20,000 troops near the border with Ukraine where government troops are fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax
Chilling words from U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power to the Security Council today:
"[A]ny further unilateral intervention by Russia into Ukrainian territory – including one under the guise of providing humanitarian aid – would be completely unacceptable and deeply alarming. And it would be viewed as an invasion of Ukraine."
And her conclusion:
South Ossetia. Crimea. Now eastern Ukraine. Similar words have presaged military action. The onus is on this [UN Security] Council and the entire international community to meet legitimate humanitarian needs and do so urgently, but in so doing, to make sure that history does not repeat itself.
The "Kyiv Post's" Christopher Miller reminds us that the military exercises that Moscow claimed were taking place near the Ukraine border were supposed to end today. So all those troops and military equipment will be leaving the border area, right?
"International Business Times" says Sergiy Zakharov, an artist reportedly responsible for unflattering depictions of separatist fighters on buildings in the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, was abducted on Wednesday by masked gunmen with "Donetsk People's Republic" badges. It quotes the Facebook page of a spokesman for the Murzilki art project, in which Zakharov was said to be a participant, citing neighbors' accounts of the four gunmen emerging from Zakharov's house, also taking his computer and other belongings.
Our Ukrainian Service reports that a court in the Russian region of Rostov formally ordered the five Ukrainian officers "suspected of war crimes" by Russian Investigative Committee to be held in custody during the investigation.
They are reportedly among the many soldiers that Ukrainian sources say are being held prisoner after fleeing across the border into Russia to escape an attack by pro-Russian fighters.
Keepers at the Moscow Zoo will also have to find substitute foods following the Kremlin-ordered "full embargo" on food imports from the European Union, United States, and other countries.
AFP quotes the zoo's animal handlers as saying the facility is heavily dependent on Dutch vegetables and Polish apples.
"Almost all the animals eat fruits and vegetables except for those who eat fish," said Moscow Zoo spokeswoman Anna Kachurovskaya.
"Those who eat fish are also in trouble because fish is also embargoed."
The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Kyiv in a "comment on the crashed cease-fire in Ukraine" of harboring plans to suspend a cease-fire in the 20-kilometer area around the MH17 crash site, and said the Ukrainian actions "cause anxiety."
There has been no confirmation from Ukrainian authorities of any interruption in the cease-fire in that area, despite fierce fighting elsewhere against pro-Russian separatists.
Yesterday an announcement by Kyiv suggested fighting could resume until the next phase of on-the-ground investigation into the Malaysian airliner's downing. But a subsequent statement said "the order of the President of Ukraine for a cease-fire in the area of the search operation is continuing."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed into law a parliamentary bill (approved on July 22) that raises the maximum age of reservists for military service by five to 10 years, depending on rank, the presidential website says.
The forensic team investigating MH17 victims' remains in the Netherlands has so far identified 23 people, AP reports, quoting the country's Justice Ministry. Those identified so far are 18 Dutch nationals, two Malaysians, a Briton, a Canadian, and a German.