Reuters reports:
Ukraine wants the International Monetary Fund to combine the expected third and fourth tranches of a $17 billion dollar bailout package for a total of around $2.2 billion, Interfax quoted Finance Minister Oleksander Shlapak as saying on Wednesday.
Ukraine is already expecting the disbursement of a second slice of $1.4 billion from the IMF under the programme on Aug. 29.
"We want to combine the third and fourth tranches. We calculate this will be about $2.2 billion and we count on receiving it before the end of the year," Shlapak said.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council says it "does not have official confirmation" that a convoy of Russian armored vehicles entered Luhansk, as military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk suggested overnight, Interfax reports.
Tymchuk had said as many as 40 units of heavy artillery "broke through" to Luhansk yesterday.
Reuters notes that the four suspects in the "Ukrainianizing" of the skyscraper in Moscow this morning could face three years in jail, based on the vandalism charges police have brought against them.
From our newsroom:
A Ukrainian official says nine troops have been killed in fierce fighting against pro-Russian separatists for control of a town in eastern Ukraine.
An adviser to the interior minister said on Facebook that government troops controlled half the town of Ilovaysk, outside the separatist stronghold of Donetsk. But he said rebels were putting up fierce resistance on August 20 after more than a day of fighting.
Rebels contended government forces controlled only one part of Ilovaysk.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in over four months of fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
A convoy that Russia says is carrying humanitarian aid for the region remained halted near the border. Kyiv says it will not let the trucks enter Ukraine without security guarantees from the rebels.
Based on reporting by AP, Interfax, and RIA Novosti
Pro-Kyiv military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk acknowleged in an overnight post that a "column of Russian military equipment broke through to Luhansk [on Tuesday] to reinforce local militants." That supply line appears to connect Luhansk with the Russian border.
Virgin billionaire unites 16 "concerned business leaders from Russia, Ukraine and the West" to "encourage our governments to compromise and find a peaceful solution to the current conflict." Here's a passage from their appeal:
We as business leaders from Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world urge our governments to work together to ensure we do not regress into the Cold War misery of the past. We call upon politicians to be bold and brave, so that our nations can end the painful suffering caused by war and once again collaborate for the greater good.
As a group of global business leaders, we would like to offer whatever support we can to help resolve this violent conflict. We appeal to other business leaders everywhere to open up a dialogue to create ways to resolve the issues peacefully. Conversations, not armed conflict are critical at this juncture.
An absolutely fascinating glimpse inside a top negotiator's efforts to free captives in this conflict (in Ukrainian Russian).