Ukrainian military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk says this morning there is continued fighting in Donetsk, Luhansk, Ilovaysk, and a "tense" situation at Saur-Mohyla, in the Donetsk region. He also reports "continued shelling of ATO [anti-terrorist operations] forces, including from Russia," citing nine mortar or artillery strikes from Russian territory.
Russian authorities are continuing to target McDonald's restaurants beyond the capital, where four of the U.S.-based fast-food chain's outlets were shut down by national food-safety inspectors yesterday for what they called "numerous" hygiene violations.
Now, according to Russian agencies, watchdog Rospotrebnadzor is conducting surprise inspections at McDonald's restaurants in the Sverdlovskregion.
Here's our story from last night about the initial shutdowns in Moscow:
Authorities in Russia have ordered the temporary closing of four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow.
Russia's food safety watchdog said its inspectors had found "numerous sanitary violations" at the four sites in the Russian capital, including the first-ever McDonald's in Russia.
A source at the watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, declined to say whether the action was a retaliation for the United States and other countries imposing economic sanctions on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.
McDonald's head office in Illinois said it was studying the decision to figure out "what should be done to reopen the restaurants as soon as possible."
Russia's first McDonald's opened on Moscow's Pushkin Square in 1990 and the company sayts it is the most frequented in the world.
This ends our live-blogging for August 20. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.