Internal Security News

• Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross will lead a humanitarian convoy supported by the European Union, the United States and Russia to the country's conflict-torn eastern city of Luhansk, according to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Luhansk will be a final destination point for the humanitarian aid delivery to southeast Ukraine residents, the Vice-Premier of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian troops were preparing to simultaneously launch an offensive on on Shakhtarsk, Torez and Snizhne in the country's eastern regions.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Separatist fighters in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic amassed over 200 armored combat vehicles preparing for the counterstrike against Ukrainian troops near the city of Donetsk.
   
• Six Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 31 more injured in the area of the military operation in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
   
• The population of Luhansk still has no access to food supplies, power, water, and fixed or mobile telephone services, the city administration's press service reported, describing the situation in the city as "critical".

Diplomacy News

• A Russian convoy of 280 trucks headed for eastern Ukraine carrying "humanitarian supplies" for the people of conflict-torn region, Russian news agencies reported. The Ukrainian government stated that it would not allow any Russian aid into the country if it was accompanied by the Russian military or members of Russia's emergencies ministry. A Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman later told the BBC that the Russian trucks would not cross the border, and that it was up to the Red Cross to decide what to do with the aid.
   
• (RIA Novosti) However, a source told RIA Novosti that the arrival of the Russian humanitarian convoy at the Ukrainian border was expected on Wednesday, August 13.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Francois Hollande in a telephone conversation expressed serious concern over continuing degradation of the situation in Ukraine and worsening of humanitarian problems in the southeast, the Kremlin press service said.
   
• US President Barack Obama agreed in a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi that any Russian intervention in Ukraine, including actions "under the guise of 'humanitarian' assistance," would result in further Western sanctions on Russia's already teetering economy.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso during a telephone conversation warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian.
   
• The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called Russia’s intention to hold a meeting in Crimea of the top Russian leadership with the participation of President Vladimir Putin ‘unacceptable.’
   
•  (RIA Novosti) The Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case over the detention of Russian photographer Andrei Stenin.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Malaysia was planning to station two police officers – one in Ukraine and one in the Netherlands – to continue the investigation into the recent Malaysia Airlines plane crash near Donetsk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Norwegian authorities announced that they will join the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia on July 31.
   
• The Verkhovna Rada put on the agenda a government bill on international sanctions for the support and financing of terrorism in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at the Mashuk-2014 youth forum that Russia fears no sanctions and no attempts at exerting pressure on it will have effect.