Good morning. We'll start the live blog rolling this morning with an update from our news desk on the long-running Mistral saga:
French President Francois Hollande said that he would decide "in the coming weeks" whether or not to scrap a contentious contract to supply two warships to Russia.
The fate of the two Mistral helicopter carriers has plagued France-Russia ties ever since Paris put the 1.2-billion-euro deal on hold a year ago after the West slapped sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.
"We have contractual obligations," Hollande said on July 27. "We are in a discussion...which will require a decision that I have to take...in the coming weeks."
The first ship was due for delivery in 2014, while the second was to be delivered this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has played down the importance of the 2011 deal and claimed that Russia ordered them mostly to help the French shipyard.
The Kremlin has, however, made clear Moscow would like its money back.
According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, France has offered to terminate the Mistral contract and pay back 785 million euros to Moscow, provided Paris can re-export the vessels.
(AFP, Bloomberg, TASS)
Ukraine's AIDS crisis:
Forbes piece: Will Ukraine Default?
Ukraine’s economy is in desperate trouble, mainly due to the civil war in the east of the country and the ongoing standoff with Russia over gas supplies. GDP has fallen by 23% in the last two years, a collapse of a similar order to Greece’s but over a much shorter time frame. Because of this, Ukraine’s debt/GDP currently stands at an unsustainable 158% of GDP. Default or restructuring is inevitable. The argument is over what form this should take.
I have to admit that this had me for a few seconds. (Parody Sputnik account)
Here's an update from our news desk:
A high-ranking commander of Ukraine's Azov battalion has been found dead in his apartment in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv.
The press service of the Azov regiment, formerly a volunteer militia unit, said on Twitter on July 27 that Yaroslav Babych, a deputy chief of Azov's civil staff, was found hanged in the morning of July 26.
No further details were immediately available.
Investigations have been launched into the death.
The Azov Battalion was formed in 2014 to fight Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Azov is now part of the Interior Ministry's National Guard.
(With reporting by UNIAN)
Here is a map of the latest military situation in the Donbas region -- courtesy of Ukraine's Defense Ministry (click image to enlarge):
