That concludes our live blogging for Tuesday, August 19.
Here's our latest rundown of news from Ukraine. You can also follow continued coverage HERE.
Putin, Poroshenko To Meet In Minsk; Ukraine Fighting Intense
Via our newsroom:
Ukraine has banned 14 Russian television channels accusing them of spreading war propaganda.
Among the channels Ukrainian authorities banned on August 19 were Russia Today and Life News.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry aide Anton Gerashchenko made the announcement on his Facebook site, saying the channels were taken off the air in Ukraine because they were "broadcasting propaganda of war and violence."
Kyiv has already banned some broadcasts of Russian television channels as the conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces has grown worse.
Media freedom organizations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have called on Ukrainian authorities to exercise extreme caution when considering banning or censoring media and Internet outlets.
Based on reporting by Reuters and on Gerashchenko's Facebook page
From RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service correspondent Anna Shamanska and Glenn Kates in Prague:
How Russian State TV Tied Satanists To Ukraine's Leadership
Here's an excerpt:
[A Rossia 24 report says] Yatsenyuk is something that may be even worse: "a follower of Scientology," the controversial religious group that Russia has refused to recognize.
Except he's not. Despite popular online rumors that he is either a Scientologist or Jewish, Yatsenyuk identifies himself as a Ukrainian Greek Catholic -- a church that makes up 14 percent of Ukraine's population.
But perhaps for the purposes of the report it's a difference without a distinction.
From ITAR-TASS:
Ukraine hopes to receive more than half of imported natural gas it needs through reverse supplies from the European Union, Ukrainian parliament-appointed Energy and Coal Industry
Minister Yury Prodan said Tuesday.
"With account for Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, we can cover over 50 percent of our imported gas needs," the Ukrainian Energy Ministry quoted Prodan as saying.
He said Ukraine may annually obtain 8-10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas via Slovakia. In all, such supplies may amount up to 16 bcm each year via the territory of the three countries.
With the international public distracted by the stalled humanitarian convoy?
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry dismisses a Russian suggestion -- possibly based on a Hungarian news report -- that Hungary has provided Kyiv with weapons.