Kiev

A convoy of lorries from Russia are entering Ukrainian territory, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has announced.

The vehicles have not been granted Kiev's permission to cross the border.

In its statement [RU], the ministry says that the convoy is heading to Luhansk and warns Ukraine against any actions it could take to stop the trucks.

Ukraine on Friday accused Moscow of invading after Russia unilaterally sent the first part of its mammoth aid convoy into east Ukraine, warning against any attacks on the trucks.
      

"Ukraine deserves Western military support"

KIEV -- Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin says his country deserves military support from the West to combat militias of self-proclaimed people's republics.

Kiev is prepared to pay an interim compromise price for Russian gas, energy minister Yuri Prodan said, and criticised Russia's Gazprom for being unwilling to negotiate.

A Ukrainian flag was unfurled on the top of a Moscow skyscraper within sight of the Kremlin on Aug. 20, officials said, as fighting in eastern Ukraine has frayed bilateral ties.
      
The Soviet star crowning the Stalin-era skyscraper, located just a kilometre from the Kremlin, was also painted in the yellow and blue colours of the national flag.
     

Putin to meet with CU, EU officials, Poroshenko

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend a meeting of heads of the Customs Union members with Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko in Minsk on August 26.

This was announced on Tuesday by Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, ITAR-TASS reported.

Ukraine on Aug. 19 pressed on with a punishing offensive to win back its war-torn east, after claiming that pro-Russian rebels had killed "dozens" of fleeing civilians in a rocket strike.
      

More Serbs join pro-Russian forces in Ukraine

DONETSK -- Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk (DNR) Aleksandr Zakharchenko has said that 14 Serbs on Monday joined the separatist forces.

EU and NATO "unable to provide military assistance"

Helsinki -- The European Union and NATO are unable to provide military support to Ukrainian forces fighting against pro-Russian forces in the east of the country.

This is what Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb told the country's public radio Yle.

Ukrainian military officials say a convoy carrying refugees from Eastern Ukraine has been hit in the Luhansk area.

Information of the assault, allegedly carried out by pro-Russian rebels, has not yet been verified.

A spokesman of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying he did not know of such incident.