Just in from RFE/RL's News Desk:
European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen says the European Union will press ahead with implementing new sanctions against Russia on September 8 for its role in Ukraine’s conflict, despite a shaky Russian-proposed cease-fire there.
EU officials told RFE/RL the sanctions would be ratified automatically by a written procedure at 3 p.m. Brussels time if no EU member state objects, and that there have not been any indications of objections.
Ahrenkilde-Hansen said the sanctions would come into effect upon publication by the EU’s "Official Journal" on September 9 at the latest.
The sanctions were agreed by EU leaders on the sidelines of NATO’s summit in Wales on September 5.
The EU has said the sanctions could be suspended if Moscow honors the cease-fire conditions and pulls its troops out of Ukrainian territory.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry pledged an unspecified “reaction” if additional EU sanctions are implemented.
From the Crimean Unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Police in Crimea have detained a well-known blogger who has strongly criticized Russia's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine.
Yelizaveta Bohutskaya has been a contributor to RFE/RL's Crimean desk under the name Liza Bohutski.
Her husband, Oles Bohutskyy, told RFE/RL that their apartment in Simferopol had been searched by police accompanied by security troops with assault rifles.
He said police explained that the apartment was searched because Bohutskaya had been among people who greeted the leader of Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, near the administrative boundary between Crimea and continental Ukraine in May.
Russia has barred Dzhemilev from Crimea and about 100 people who greeted him in May are being investigated.
Police looked for drugs, guns, and "banned books." Bohutskaya was detained and taken away and her computers, memory sticks, cameras, and GPS devices were confiscated.
From the wires:
ITAR-TASS quotes Andriy Lysenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, as saying both sides in the Ukraine conflict have started the process of exchanging prisoners.
"The process has started. It is already under way," Lysenko said. "Ukraine's Security Service has set up a center to gather daily information about detained Ukrainian servicemen," adding some progress had already been made.
Lysenko, however, did not give any concrete figures on the number of prisoners of war or set any specific dates when the prisoner exchange could begin.