More PR for the Kremlin? Here's how AFP reported boxing legend Roy Jones, Jr.'s meeting with the Russian president in Crimea:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he would be glad to grant a request for Russian citizenship from US boxer Roy Jones Jr as the multiple world champion visited Russian-annexed Crimea.
The 46-year-old boxer, famed for winning world titles in four different weight categories, drank tea with Putin in Crimea's naval port city of Sevastopol, photographs released by the Kremlin showed.
Jones, who has branched out into rap and acting in films, was in Crimea to appear as a guest at a boxing show on Sunday.
"I think that if I had a Russian passport, for example, it would be a lot easier for me to come and go, because people love sport here and so I love this place," Jones told Putin in comments translated into Russian by TASS state news agency.
Putin replied: "If you intend to link a significant part of your life with activities in Russia, then of course we will be glad and will fulfil your request to receive Russian citizenship with pleasure."
Boxing promoter Vladimir Khryunov, who works with Jones in Russia, told TASS that Jones had "no questions at all about travelling here," despite Washington's condemnation of Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Russia granted citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu in 2013 after he expressed his anger over French tax laws.
Putin, a judo black-belt, has previously hung out with a number of muscle-bound stars including US actor Steven Seagal and Hollywood star Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Vladimir Putin's dive into the Black Sea off Crimea yesterday generated quite a response on social media. Anna Shamanska has compiled this amusing recap.
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The Ukraine Live Blog is now open for August 20.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has published a list of Ukrainian military personnel who died during a Russian-backed ambush on Ukrainian fighters in Ilovaysk a year ago.
366 Ukrainians died -- 157 of them remain unidentified.
The Ukrainian army entered Ilovaysk, Donetsk oblast, on August 18, taking the majority of the town under their control. Russia then allegedly sent its regular troops to help the separatists and surrounded the Ukrainian fighters. On August 30 Ukrainians began to exit the town through the “green corridor” promised to them, but were shot at by surrounding enemy forces.
Four Ukrainian soldiers killed as fighting tests truce
KYIV, Aug 20 (Reuters) -- Four Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 14 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian rebels in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday, as a new wave of violence rekindled concerns a ceasefire deal could be crumbling.
A notable increase in military and civilian casualties in the past two weeks has prompted the leaders of France and Germany, who helped broker the six-month-old truce, to arrange new talks with President Petro Poroshenko to discuss how to preserve the peace.
Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksander Motuzyanyk reported renewed rebel shelling of government positions near the separatist-held city of Donetsk and mortar fire in villages near the strategic Kiev-controlled port city of Mariupol.
"In this area the enemy does not engage in direct fighting with the Ukrainian army, but regularly fires chaotically from howitzers and GRAD multiple rocket launchers," he said.
Separatist officials accused Ukrainian troops in turn of shelling rebel territory, including residential areas.
On Wednesday, NATO warned Russia, which the West accuses of supporting the separatists with equipment and fighters, that any attempt by the rebels to take more of Ukraine's territory would be unacceptable.
Poroshenko will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in Berlin on Monday to discuss the latest escalation in the conflict, which has killed over 6,500 since erupting in April 2014.