Good morning. Diplomacy news:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will visit Canada and the United States next week.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office said on September 11 that Poroshenko would be in Ottawa on September 17.
Poroshenko will meet with Harper and address the Canadian parliament where he is expected to thank Canada's 1.2 million people of Ukrainian descent for their support for Kyiv in its battle to reclaim the eastern part of the country from pro-Russian separatists.
Poroshenko will then travel on the United States where Congress has invited the Ukrainian leader to give an address on September 18.
And this case continues to rumble on:
The European Union has called for the "immediate release" of an Estonian policeman detained by Russia and charged with espionage.
An EU statement released on September 11 said, "We are concerned at the abduction on September 5 of Estonian police officer Eston Kohver by the Russian security services on Estonian territory."
Russia says Kohver was seized inside Russia on September 5, while Estonian officials say he was captured at gunpoint near the border and taken to Russia.
The EU said Russia's actions were "against international law and the principle of inviolability of borders."
Estonia's Foreign Ministry called the case "very disturbing" and summoned Russia's ambassador in Tallinn, Yury Merzlakov, for an explanation.
The U.S. State Department said on September 9 that Kohver should be "safely" and "immediately" returned to Estonia by Russian officials.
More from our news desk on the exchange of prisoners:
Ukraine government forces and pro-Russian separatists have exchanged dozens of prisoners captured during fighting in eastern Ukraine, as part of a cease-fire agreement signed earlier this month.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said 36 servicemen were released early on September 12. He said 21 others had been released the day before.
Ukrainian forces handed over 31 rebels.
The prisoner exchange took place outside Donetsk, one of two separatist-held provincial capitals in eastern Ukraine.
Hundreds of people are believed to have been detained by both sides since the start of the conflict in April.
The two sides have repeatedly accused each other of delaying prisoner exchanges and violating the September 5 cease-fire deal.
ITAR-TASS via Reuters:
Russian state-owned arms exporting firm Rosoboronexport does not expect the latest European Union's sanctions over Ukraine to hurt its exports, Russian news agencies quoted the company's deputy head as saying on Friday.
"According to our forecasts and conclusions, and taking into account the task of import substitution, we are not expecting any significant impact of the new sanctions on our exports," Sergei Goreslavsky was quoted by state news agency Itar-Tass as saying.
UKRAINE PRESIDENT SAYS THERE CAN BE NO MILITARY SOLUTION OF UKRAINE CRISIS, REAFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR SOME DECENTRALISATION OF POWER TO REGIONS -- Reuters
President Petro Poroshenko says the Ukrainian and European parliaments will meet simultaneously on Tuesday to jointly ratify Kyiv's "historic" trade and political association agreement with the EU.
Despite the shaky cease-fire in Ukraine, preparations for further fighting continue. RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service visited Pletenivka, a crossing point in northeastern Ukraine on the border with Russia, where local volunteers dug defensive trenches on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tells leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Tajik capital, "I believe it is necessary to further improve the efficiency of our interaction to meet the challenges of the time," according to Reuters.
Today is the second and final day of the summit, which brings together officials from members China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan's president is there as an invited guest. Officials from observers Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia, and Pakistan are participating in the later stages of the summit.
Russian agencies quote State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin as calling U.S. sanctions "already disconnected from reality."