From Reuters:
Ukraine's president said on Wednesday Russia had removed the bulk of its forces from his country, raising hopes for a peace drive now underway after five months of conflict in which more than 3,000 people have been killed.
Moscow denies sending troops into eastern Ukraine to support pro-Russian rebels battling Ukrainian forces, despite what Kiev and its Western backers say is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Moscow also denies arming the separatists.
President Petro Poroshenko told a televised cabinet meeting Ukraine would remain a sovereign, united country under the terms of a peace roadmap approved last Friday, but said parts of the east under rebel control would get special status.
"According to the latest information I have received from our intelligence, 70 percent of Russian troops have been moved back across the border," Poroshenko said. "This further strengthens our hope that the peace initiatives have good prospects."
The Ukrainian border authority says 58 border guards have been killed so far in eastern Ukraine, Interfax reports.
Meeting with Malaysia's visiting defense minister, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says that Ukraine was solely responsible for the MH17 crash that killed 298 people, despite Ukrainian and Western assertions that pro-Russian or Russian troops shot down the Malaysian airliner with a BUK missile system.
"The crash happened in the airspace of Ukraine which bears full, total responsibility for what has happened," AFP quotes Shoigu as saying in televised remarks, and adding, "I am convinced that if Ukraine solved its domestic problems without the use of armed forces, without the bloodshed there over the past month, without the use of heavy artillery...this tragedy would not have happened."
Confirmation, via ua.korrespondent.net and UNIAN:
Ukrainian air force pilot Nadiya Savchenko and film director Oleh Sentsov, who are in Russian custody, may be exchanged for pro-Russian rebels captured by Ukrainian forces in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The chief of Ukraine's Security Service, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, told journalists on September 10 that Savchenko and Sentsov are on a list of people to be exchanged.
A cease-fire deal agreed by Kyiv and hte rebels on September 5 calls for the swift release of all "hostages and people held illegally."
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has charged Savchenko with complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.
Sentsov has been charged with planning terrorist attacks in Crimea after it was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in March.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on September 10 that some 700 Ukrainian citizens had been freed from rebel captivity and that 500 others would be released soon.
Rebels in the Donetsk region said the exchange of more captives scheduled for September 10 may be postponed by a day.
Based on reporting by ua.korrespondent.net and UNIAN
The mother of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who is being held in Rostov by Russian authorities who accuse her of complicity in killing two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine, has written an open letter (in English here) to Russian mothers. (h/t: @CoalsonR and @Jacques_More) The letter -- dated September 1 -- was published yesterday by lawyer Nikolai Polozov on the Ekho Moskvy website.
There are reports that Savchenko is included on a list of captive "prisoners of war" who should be included in prisoner swaps between Kyiv and separatist forces.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty speaking at a news conference in Moscow today, via Reuters:
"The evidence we've gathered has shown that Russia is directly and actively involved in the conflict [in Ukraine] and is a party to the conflict."
"Based on the unique and recent satellite imagery we've got and analyzed with experts both in-house and outside in great detail to establish that the level of build-up, systematic organized build-up, of mobile artillery and armored units in the Novoazovsk region was not possible for the separatist forces to do on their own without the support of the professional Russian military."
"The denial from the Russian government that they are not involved in the conflict in the east doesn't absolve them of their accountability and responsibility."
"The violations that the Russian government is committing, human rights violations inside the Russian Federation is not about adhering to Western standards. Russia itself is a signatory to most international conventions and human rights covenants. So it's not about what the West is doing, it's about Russia doing the right thing for its own people."
Your move, Russian state media!
The latest situation map from the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council.
