Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this look-ahead for Rex Tillerson's visit to Kyiv today (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Tillerson Set To Meet Poroshenko In First Official Visit To Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to arrive in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on July 9 on his first official visit to Ukraine.
The planned meeting comes a day after the conclusion of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hamburg, Germany, where Tillerson attended the first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While Trump called the meeting "tremendous" and has called for better ties with Moscow, his administration has maintained U.S. sanctions targeting Russia over its 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backing of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on July 5 that Tillerson would "reaffirm" Washington's "commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and encourage Kyiv to continue implementing reforms to strengthen its "economic, political, and military resilience."
The State Department announced on July 7 that Tillerson would be accompanied to Kyiv by Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO whom Trump's top diplomat has appointed as a special envoy to negotiate over the fate of war-racked Ukraine.
Poroshenko welcomed Volker's appointment, calling it an "important and timely move in the interests of ending Russian aggression and restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, including Crimea."
This ends our live blogging for July 8. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
Explosion reported near separatists' headquarters: