An excerpt:
The war in eastern Ukraine is a war of trenches and shelling and of men who are tired of both.
In Pisky, a village on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk, a contingent of Ukrainian army soldiers -- 7th Company of the 93rd Brigade -- holds a small section of the front. Opposite their positions are Russian-backed separatists who wage their war from trenches of their own. During the day it is mostly quiet, an errant shell on the hour usually reminding those on the line that the war is waiting for darkness.
At night, the fighting starts when the air cools, and it doesn’t stop until an hour before sunrise. This is the war in Ukraine.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Russian Police Seize 470 Tons Of Contraband Cheese Products
Russian police say they have arrested six people on charges of running an international smuggling ring that brought contraband foreign cheese products worth about 2 billion rubles ($30 million) into Russia.
Police in St. Petersburg say they also seized 470 tons of materials used to produce cheese, along with counterfeit labeling equipment.
Authorities were enforcing a 2014 Kremlin ban on Western cheese and other agricultural products that was imposed in retaliation for U.S. and European Union sanctions over Russia’s role in Ukraine’s conflict.
In recent weeks, in tacit acknowledgment that the ban has been widely violated, Russia’s agricultural oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor has been publicizing the destruction of tons of contraband food.
Televised images of cheese being bulldozed by Russian authorities has stirred up anger among ordinary Russians suffering from economic hardships that have worsened as a result of the international sanctions.
Based on reporting by AP and Interfax
In today's Daily Vertical, RFE/RL's Brian Whitmore looks at a possible false-flag operation being planned in Ukraine:
