Our newsroom follow-up to Brussels correspondent @RikardJozwiak's earlier reporting:
The European Union will provide $170 million in aid to farmers affected by a Russian ban on fruit and vegetable imports from the EU.
The EU's Executive Commission said on August 18 that the aid would help farmers who grow tomatoes, carrots, white cabbage, peppers, cauliflower, cucumbers, mushrooms, apples, pears, berries, grapes, and kiwis.
Russia in early August banned imports of fruit and vegetables and some other foods from the EU and other Western countries.
The sanctions are retaliation for Western sanctions imposed against Russia over Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its alleged support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In recent years, EU countries have annually exported vegetables and fruits to Russia worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The European Commission says Russia bought 28 percent of the EU's fruit exports and more than 21 percent of its vegetable exports in 2011.
Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and ITAR-TASS
AP notes that the road near which the deadly bombing of the refugee convoy took place this morning is "likely the one that a convoy of Russian humanitarian aid would take if Ukraine allows it into the country."
The Red Cross has consistently stated that "we need parties to the conflict in east Ukraine to give security guarantees for the humanitarian operation to go ahead."
The latest situational map commissioned by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council:
From our Brussels correspondent:
From our newsroom:
Authorities in Kyiv say pro-Russian separatists fired missiles at a convoy of buses carrying refugees from the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk on August 18, leaving many dead, including women and children.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the separatists fired Grad missiles and mortars at the convoy when it was traveling near Khyashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka.
Lysenko alleged that the weapons were given to the separatists by Russia.
Andrei Purgin, a senior rebel leader in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, denied that separatists were responsible for the missile strike.
Purgin said rebel forces did not have the military capability to send Grad rockets into that territory.
A rebel news outlet had reported earlier that separatists and Ukrainian government forces were exchanging heavy artillery fire on August 18 in the area where the buses had been traveling.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and Ukrayinska Pravda
Reuters quotes a senior Ukraine rebel leader denying that separatists are responsible for an apparent missile strike on a column of buses carrying internally displaced Ukrainians near Luhansk:
Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said rebel forces did not have the military capability to conduct such an attack.
"The Ukrainians themselves have bombed the road constantly with airplanes and Grads. It seems they've now killed more civilians like they've been doing for months now. We don't have the ability to send Grads into that territory," he said.
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service quotes the spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Lysenko, saying that "many people" were killed, "including women and children," in a rocket and mortar attack this morning on a column of buses carrying displaced persons in Luhansk.
There is no exact casualty figure yet.
Other reports said Grad multiple-rocket launchers were used in the attack.
After last night's meeting, Lavrov was quoted as suggesting there was agreement on a future meeting within same format. Perhaps that was an erroneous report. But today, he's saying that "we'll report the results to our heads of state and see in which format to continue efforts to end the tragedy in Ukraine."
Reuters is also reporting the allegation by the Ukrainian military that separatists hit a column of buses carrying civilian refugees from areas of fighting near Luhansk.
A convoy of buses carrying refugees from the east Ukrainian city of Luhansk was hit by rebel missile fire on Monday resulting in an unknown number of casualties, Ukrainian military spokesmen said.
"Terrorists fired Grad missiles at a convoy of refugees from Luhansk near the areas of Khryashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka ... we are waiting to hear how many died," a spokesman for the military operation in the east said.
A spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said she had no information about the case. A rebel news outlet, however, said that separatists and Ukrainian forces had exchanged heavy artillery fire where the buses had been travelling.