It seems Kyiv has taken a dim view of Silvio Berlusconi quaffing a fancy bottle of Crimean wine (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Ukrainian prosecutors are prepared to file charges against the director of a winery in Russian-occupied Crimea for uncorking a 240-year old bottle for Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Putin and Berlusconi spent last weekend in Crimea, touring ancient ruins and visiting the peninsula's prized Massandra winery.
Massandra, which was nationalized following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, has rare wine and sherry dating back more than 200 years in its collection.
Russian television showed Berlusconi examining a bottle of 1775 Jerez de la Frontera wine from the cellars and asking the director -- Yanina Pavlenko -- if he could try it, and she uncorked the bottle for him and President Putin.
Ukrainian media quoted Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor-General for Crimea, Nazar Kholodnytskiy, as saying embezzlement charges against Pavlenko will be filed soon.
Massandra winery had five bottles of 1775 Jerez de la Frontera wine before the annexation.
Two other bottles of that wine were sold at Sotheby’s auction in 1990 and 2001. One bottle of the wine costs $100,000-$150,000.
(AP, UNIAN, Investigator.com.ua)
Here is a map of the latest situation in thre Donbas conflict zone, issued by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense (click image to enlarge):
Here's an update on some casualties in the east:
Two Ukrainian fighters died and five more were wounded over the past 24 hours in Ukraine, accoridng to presidential military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.
Lysenko said detonating explosives affected two groups of Ukrainian fighters on September 17.
According to Lysenko, since the launch of what the Kyiv authorities call an antiterrorist operation in the Donbas region, Ukrainian sappers have defused 18,500 explosive devices while also clearing explosives from 585 kilometers of roads, and 17 kilometers of rail tracks.
Earlier today, the Luhansk military and civilian administration reported that two Ukrainians were wounded as a result of separatists shelling their car with grenades on September 17.
Here's another map of the situation in the Donbas (with the latest casualties):
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has this live feed of Ihor Mosiychuk in court today (natural sound no subtitles):
Mosiychuk, a deputy with the populist Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko, has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity after a video emerged of him allegedly negotiating bribes worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Here's an item on Poroshenko's upcoming visit to New York:
President Petro Poroshenko is expected to give two speeches -- on September 27 and 29 -- while attending the UN General Assembly in New York.
On September 27, Poroshenko will give a speech during a summit on sustainable development, and on September 29 -- during the plenary debate.
"The key, of course, and most politically significant speech of Ukrainian President will be the one during the plenary debate,” said the deputy head of the presidential administration Kostyantyn Yeliseyev.
He also added that the administration is working on organizing a number of bilateral meetings with leaders of other countries.
"There will be about a dozen of such meetings," Yeliseyev said. Among others, Petro Poroshenko may meet his American counterpart Barack Obama.
The 70th UN General Assembly began on September 15, but the plenary debate will take place from September 28 until October 3.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is also expected to attend the event and give a speech there.