In a feisty "commentary" posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website, the ministry's special representative for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, urges the United States to "look after its largescale internal problems and take effective measures to solve them," adding that "that's a more constructive path that corresponds to the needs and realities of the 21st century than interventions in the internal affairs of other countries and replacing unfavorable regimes on the false pretext of protecting democracy and human rights -- a practice inherited from last century."
Ukrainian authorities now say they have recovered 17 bodies from the site where a column of vehicles carrying internally displaced persons was shelled. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said six other people are hospitalized, three of whom are seriously injured.
Poland has requested that the European Commission challenge Russia's anti-Western sanctions before the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Polish Agriculture Ministry was quoted by Reuters as announcing.
The agency notes that Polish food exports to Russia totaled $1.5 billion in 2013 and adds:
Poland's Economy Ministry told Reuters it had sent the request to European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who represents EU members in all WTO cases.
After a meeting with the Commissioner on Tuesday, Poland's Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki said that preliminary EU consultations were currently under way and that first decisions on the lawsuit could be made as soon as September 12.
"The United States', Australia and Canada's opinion will also be important," Sawicki was quoted as saying by Polish state news agency PAP. "I believe Deputy Prime Minister (Janusz) Piechocinski will engage in talks with those countries."
The WTO could fine Russia if it concludes that the country infringed on open-market policies.
Russia joined the WTO in August 2012.
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."