Here's more on the Alexievich controversy courtesy of RFE/RL's news desk:
Belarusian Nobel Laureate Alexievich Cancels Event In Ukraine Amid Threats
Belarusian writer and Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich says she has canceled her meeting with readers in the Ukrainian city of Odesa amid threats.
Alexievich said in a video statement on August 8 that she learned about threats against her and the organizers of the meeting and therefore decided to cancel the event planned at the Green Theater in the Black Sea port city.
The Green Theater wrote on Facebook that Alexievich's name was added to a list of "enemies of Ukraine" by the Ukrainian nationalist website Myrotvorets (Peacekeeper) four hours before Alexievich's scheduled meeting with readers on August 8.
The Myrotvorets site accused Alexievich of "propagating interethnic discord and manipulating information important for society" in a speech she delivered in Brooklyn, New York, in 2016.
Although the site removed Alexievich's name from the list several hours later, the writer and the theater decided to cancel the event "to avoid possible risks for Alexievich and the audience in the theater."
In her video statement, Alexievich called Myrotvorets' statement about her anti-Ukrainian stance "absolutely far-fetched."
"My mother is Ukrainian. I was born in Ukraine and I have always felt my Ukrainian blood... It is always important for me to meet with Ukraine," said Alexievich, who grew up in Belarus and has Belarusian citizenship.
In her very first public statement after she was announced the Nobel Prize winner in literature in 2015, Alexievich condemned Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, calling it an armed intervention.
Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with a few of the tweets that caught our eye overnight:
This ends our live blogging for August 8. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Sentsov's condition "catastrophic" as hunger strike approaches fourth month:
By RFE/RL's Russian Service
MOSCOW -- The condition of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who has been on a hunger strike in a Russian prison for nearly three months, has worsened considerably, his lawyer and his cousin say.
Sentsov's cousin, Moscow-based journalist Natalya Kaplan, wrote on Facebook on August 8 that she received a letter from him through a lawyer who visited him the previous day.
"Things aren't just bad, they're catastrophically bad," Kaplan wrote.
"He wrote that the end is near -- and he wasn't talking about his release," she added, suggesting that he thinks he is close to death.
Sentsov's lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, said after visiting him that his client lost some 30 kilograms and has a very low hemoglobin level, resulting in anemia and a slow heartbeat of about 40 beats per minute.
"Sentsov's health rapidly deteriorates," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maryana Betsa tweeted, urging the international community to "exert more pressure" on Russia to release him.
Also on August 8 -- the 87th day of Sentsov's hunger strike -- a large banner demanding the immediate release of Sentsov and other political prisoners in Russia was displayed in downtown Moscow.
Unknown activists placed the banner on the Krymsky (Crimean) Bridge over the Moskva River.
Sentsov, a vocal opponent of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, was sentenced in 2015 for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, charges he and human rights groups say were politically motivated.
The 42-year-old is held in a penal colony in the city of Labytnangi in Russia's northern region of Yamalo-Nenets, where he has been on a hunger strike since mid-May to demand that Russia release 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners.
Several groups have called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to pardon Sentsov, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Ukrainian film director would have to ask for a pardon himself before it could be considered.
Sentsov has so far said he would not ask for a pardon. (w/ AFP)