Here are some of the comments today by Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, concerning the shelling yesterday of the vehicles carrying internally displaced persons and the fighting today in Luhansk:
"Military de-miners have found the first 15 bodies of civilians. Armed clashes between terrorists and anti-terrorist forces started in this district. That is why the search operation has temporarily stopped."
"One Luhansk district has been liberated. Street fighting is going on in the center of the city."
A Kremlin spokesman confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the Minsk summit, so it would appear that Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will indeed meet next Tuesday for the first time since the D-Day commemorations in early June.
An announcement on the Kremlin website adds that "a number of bilateral meetings are also scheduled to take place" but doesn't provide details.
From ITAR-TASS:
Deliveries from Russia's relief aid convoy for embattled east Ukraine have been suspended again, Andrey Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, said on Tuesday.
"As of 10am Moscow time, the process of preparing aid for delivery has not been carried out since representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] have not received security guarantees from militiamen," Lysenko said, adding that a group of ICRC representatives was on its way to Ukraine's eastern city of Lugansk for an assessment and to organise cargo delivery.
"A group of three people will arrive in Ukraine from the city of Donetsk in Rostov region," he said.
Ukraine's prime minister viewing the glass half full:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's official website says European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso "supported an initiative by the President of Ukraine to invite the EU to participate in the high-level meetings" in Minsk between Ukraine and the Customs Unioon's "Eurasian Troika" of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus on August 26. They are reportedly expected to discuss issues related to Ukraine's EU association agreement, energy security, and stabilization of the Donbas region.
Interfax quoted the Belarusian Foreign Ministry confirming that it plans to host the gathering.