Internal Security News

• (ITAR-TASS) The Donetsk-based “Novorossiya” news agency reported that Igor Strelkov, the defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, was badly wounded and in serious condition. An official from the Donetsk People’s Republic later stated that the media reports were wrong. “This is complete nonsense, a new round of information warfare. Igor Strelkov is alive and well.” Later on August 14, the website of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic announced that Igor Strelkov resigned amid rumors of his serious injury or death.
   
• Valeriy Bolotov, the leader of the pro-Russian separatist rebels in the Luhansk region, announced his resignation, saying he was injured and could not carry on in his role, becoming the second senior rebel to quit in the space of seven days.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Twenty clashes had occurred in the army operation zone in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, leaving nine servicemen dead and 18 wounded.
   
• Heavy shelling was heard in the rebel-held city of Donetsk as a Russian convoy approached the Ukrainian border.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk came under Grad missile fire overnight on August 13. Additionally, one civilian was killed and another 11 wounded in the night shelling of the town of Mospino near Donetsk.
   
• (RIA Novosti) More than 22,400 people had signed an online petition calling on the United Nations to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk.
   
• Ukraine's National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council urged television providers to stop relaying the Russian version of the Euronews channel.

Diplomacy News

• A convoy of Russian trucks bearing humanitarian aid continued its journey toward the Ukrainian border amid fears that it could be used as a pretext for an invasion. The convoy, with over 200 trucks, took off towards the direction of Rostov early on the morning of August 14, fuelling speculation that the trucks would try to enter Ukraine through separatist territory instead of an official Kyiv-controlled border crossing as originally promised.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A spokesman for the NSDC said that the Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid will be blocked unless it is inspected by Ukrainian border guards and customs officers in the presence of the ICRC.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian President Vladimir Putin described the current situation in Ukraine as “bloody chaos”, pledging that Moscow will make every effort to stop the conflict.
   
• Putin said that Russia would stand up for itself but not at the cost of confrontation with the outside world, a conciliatory note after months of tough rhetoric over the crisis in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanded a full list of items contained in Russia’s relief convoy bound for southeast Ukraine.
   
• A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that a senior official of the ICRC will travel to Kyiv and Moscow for talks on the delivery of Russian aid to eastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission said that OSCE observers have not detected any troop movement on the Russian-Ukrainian border at the Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov dismissed Ukrainian media outlets' reports that Russian military vehicles crossed the border with Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that she does not accept Russia's actions committed in relation to Ukraine, and that she would never accept the annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton convened an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for August 15 in Brussels focusing on major crises in Iraq and Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The U.S. delegation at the United Nations promised to “positively influence Kyiv” in the issue of relief aid delivery to eastern Ukraine, said Russian U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin. Churkin also stated that the United Nations is becoming more unbiased in assessing the situation in eastern Ukraine and has begun to sound alarm about possible attack on the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.