Another item from our news desk:
Ukraine Grants Asylum To Kremlin Critic
A Russian opposition activist who was the first person charged under a strict new law restricting protests has received political asylum in Ukraine.
Vladimir Ionov, 76, told Ukraine's Hromadske Radio on August 15 that his asylum request -- filed after Russian authorities charged him with attending more than two unauthorized public protests during one six-month period -- had been accepted.
Under legislation enacted in Russia in 2014, such activity is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Rights activists call the new law a menacing tool to crack down on dissent.
Ionov did not show up at his trial in December, and media reports at the time said he fled to Ukraine.
Another Russian opposition activist, Ildar Dadin, was sentenced to three years in jail on December 7, the first person to be convicted under the new legislation.
Based on reporting by nv.ua and hromadskeradio.org
Here is today's map of the latest security situation in the Donbas, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Nazarbaev says Poroshenko seeks compromise on Donbas:
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev says Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is "inclined to finding compromises" on to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists.
At the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on August 16, Nazarbaev said Poroshenko had told him by phone "recently" that the Ukrainian parliament "has been hindering the adoption of the legislation defining the status" of districts in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk controlled by the separatists.
For his part, Putin thanked Nazarbaev for his role as a mediator in improving Russia's relations with Turkey and expressed the hope that declining trade between Russia and Kazakhstan will increase.
Nazarbaev said he plans to meet with Putin at least more five times before the end of the year.
The Sochi trip is Nazarbaev's 19th visit to Russia since 2012. (Interfax, KazTAG)