Ukraine's Interior Ministry announced that at least two soldiers were killed in the eastern town of Illovaisk today as fighting continued between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.
(There are credible reports that one of the deaths was the soldier-husband of Tetyana Chornovol, a journalist who gained international notice when she was brutally beaten after publishing an article alleging high-level corruption in the Yanukovych administration.)
AP quoted Donetsk city council spokesman Maksim Rovinsky as saying one person was killed and 10 injured in shelling in the rebel-held city.
Heavy shelling was also reported from Krasnyi Luch, a city between Donetsk and the other rebel stronghold, Luhansk.
This is one of a growing number of credible sources suggesting one of the pro-Kyiv Azov Battalion troops killed in the latest fighting in eastern Ukraine was Mykola Berezovy, the husband of a fearless investigative journalist and Euromaidan campaigner, Tetyana Chornovol.
Here is an interview our Ukrainian Service did with Chornovol in February, with the anti-Yanukovych anger mounting over the kind of corruption that Chornovol was punished -- when she was brutally beaten after a car chase -- for reporting:
We have not seen confirmation of this report from a more credible source, but will pass along this ITAR-TASS piece that cites the separatist "local news agency Novorossiya." Bezler (aka The Demon) could certainly do with some good PR, at this point.
Self-defense fighters attacked a Ukrainian army convoy near east Ukraine's Donetsk, destroying over 20 pieces of the armor, the local news agency Novorossiya said on Sunday.
The battle started on Saturday night when a militia group led by commander Igor Bezler attacked a Ukrainian military convoy on the Donetsk-Horlivka highway, the agency said.
Preliminary data show that over 20 pieces of the armor, including three tanks, were destroyed, Novorossiya said.
AFP just issued the very moving story "Giving Birth Under Fire In A Donetsk Hospital Cellar." It begins:
Just a pink cap was visible as Larisa held her daughter Yeva swathed in a blanket on Sunday, sitting in the cellar of Donetsk's largest maternity hospital, where she gave birth days ago amid heavy shelling.
As mortar fire continued to rain down on the centre of the rebel-held city, dozens of women huddled in this cellar, sitting on benches along the walls of the corridor, many pregnant or holding newly born babies.
"I gave birth here on August 7th, right in the corridor," said Larisa, dressed in a nightgown decorated with hearts, as her mother held a bottle of milk for the sleeping baby.
In between periods of shelling, the patients went back up to the wards, but "every time the baby calms down, we have to come down here again," she said.
"I can't believe we have got to this point: giving birth in a cellar," added her mother, Yekaterina Petrovna, angry tears in her eyes.
"Why should we experience this? Waiting for our deaths? No one hears us."
The spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Lysenko, has confirmed that the only way authorities will accept a cease-fire in the torrid fighting in Donetsk is if the separatists "lay down their arms and give up," AP reports. Lysenko added: "If white flags come up and they lay down their arms, nobody is going to shoot at them," he said. "[But] we have not seen any practical steps yet, just a statement."
Hard to say who comes out a winner in this cultural exchange.
As we conclude our live blogging for today, here's today's map from the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's information center:
That concludes our live blogging for today. Follow our continued coverage of Ukraine and all our broadcast region HERE.