EU extends sanctions on Russia for another six months:
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS -- European Union ambassadors have officially prolonged for another six months economic sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine
The June 27 decision, which was widely anticipated, came after EU leaders last week unanimously gave the green light for a rollover of the measures, citing the lack of progress with implementing the so-called Minsk agreements.
Those are the agreements that aimed to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has pit Ukrainian government forces against Russia-backed separatists and has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.
The EU sanctions mainly target Russia's energy and banking sectors, and were first imposed in the summer of 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting.
The measures have been rolled over every six months ever since.
Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords in September 2014 and February 2015 have failed to end the conflict.
Russia's Foreign Ministry criticized the latest extension of the sanctions, calling it "unconstructive" and "unlawful."
From Kyiv's ambassador to Austria:
More on PACE.
"The cost of keeping Russia in the fold has been the surrendering of all authority."
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From our news desk:
Police in the Ukrainian city of Konotop have launched an attempted murder investigation after the city's former mayor, Artem Semenikhin, was brutally beaten in the early hours of June 27.
The Konotop police department said in a statement posted on its website that Semenikhin was hospitalized and placed in intensive care after unknown assailants severely beat him as he was traveling home.
Semenikhin, 37, who served as mayor of Konotop from 2015 to 2018, was attacked two days after he registered himself as an independent candidate in snap parliamentary elections scheduled for July 21.
A deputy of the northern Sumy region council, Olena Serdyuk, posted a photo showing Semenikhin's face covered in blood as he laid on a hospital gurney on her Facebook account and urged the chief of police to take control of the investigation stated that the attack against him was politically motivated.