Good morning. Latest news today is the prisoner exchange:
Russian media reported that Ukraine has handed over ten captured Russian paratroopers and Russia has returned 63 Ukrainian soldiers who crossed into its territory last week.
The prisoners' exchange took place in the early hours of August 31.
General Aleksei Ragozin, the deputy commander of the Russian paratroop forces said the paratroopers had been handed back after "very difficult" negotiations.
Russian NTV reported that the paratroopers handed back at the Nekhoteyevka border crossing were sent to Moscow for medical and psychological treatment.
Ukraine said last week it had captured 10 Russian paratroopers and presented them to the press as evidence that the Russian military is fighting alongside pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Russia said the paratroopers had mistakenly crossed an unmarked area of the border while on patrol.
This ends our live-blogging for August 30. Please be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Here is our latest rundown:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the ongoing EU summit in Brussels has agreed to prepare new sanctions on Russia, conditional on progress of his peace plan.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels as EU leaders meet on August 30, he also said he thinks the crisis over Russia's intervention in Ukraine is "very close to the point of no return, [of) full-scale war."
He said he hoped the contact group meeting on September 1 with Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE in Minsk could result in a cease-fire.
Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier on August 30 in a telephone talk with Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka that it was important to organize consultations of the contact group in Minsk with the participation of representatives of Kyiv, of Ukraine's southeastern regions, the OSCE, and Russia.