An excerpt:
KIEV -- The people who blew up journalist Pavel Sheremet in the center of Ukraine’s capital this morning knew exactly what they were doing. His death stabbed at the hearts of independent journalists in countries all over the former Soviet Union—countries where the press is under siege.
For them, the 44-year-old Sheremet was not just a reporter, he was a journalistic institution, and the founder, not least, of a school in Kiev for young reporters. He published newspaper articles, spoke on Radio Vesti, and expressed his strong opinions on blogs and social networks.
For two decades Sheremet’s sharp reports attacked dictators and dictatorial regimes. He was fearless, much like his old friend Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who also was a victim of assassination.
At about 7:45 Wednesday morning Sheremet was driving his girlfriend’s Subaru to work at Radio Vesti when the vehicle exploded at the corner of Bagdan Khmelnitsky Avenue near a popular MacDonald’s. The journalist’s legs were just … gone. Bleeding massively, he struggled to crawl out of the car. Several people rushed to the burning vehicle, but there was no hope.
Trump Raises Questions About U.S.'s NATO Commitment To Baltics
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says if he were president he would not automatically come to the aid of the Baltic states if they were invaded by Russia.
Trump said in an interview with The New York Times published on July 20 that he would first review whether such countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" before deciding whether come to their aid in the event of an attack by Russia.
The comments follow previous statements by Trump questioning the commitment of unnamed NATO members who he has said are not contributing as much as they should to the alliance, complaining that Washington was shouldering too much of NATO's financial burden.
Not coming to the aid of a NATO ally under attack would violate Article 5 of the alliance's North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on any member state is considered an attack on every NATO member.
Trump said U.S. allies would "adjust to his approach" and he would "prefer to be able to continue" existing agreements. But he said that would only be possible if U.S. allies stop taking advantage of Washington's generosity to always foot the bill, which he said the country can no longer afford.
Based on reporting by AFP and The New York Times
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow morning, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
RFE/RL's Christopher Miller has produced an exhaustive and extensive profile of Nadia Shevchenko:
The Many Faces Of Nadia Savchenko
Ukrainian airwoman and parliamentary deputy Nadia Savchenko returned home to a rapturous welcome in May after spending more than 700 days in Russian captivity. But is this national hero, who has seen action in both Iraq and the Donbas, ready for the rough and tumble of Ukrainian political life?
Read the entire article here.