Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko's office says he and Ukraine's president spoke by telephone today and "paid serious attention to the situation in Ukraine," ITAR-TASS reports. They reportedly discussed a wide range of bilateral issues, too.
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: