Wildfires
At least five people got killed and a dozen injured by wildfires raging on the area of around 90 hectares in Novoaydar District of Luhansk Region close to the contact line with pro-Russian separatists.
During a meeting of the trilateral contact group on Donbas, Ukraine requested a full ceasefire to be able to deploy firefighting efforts, including aviation, at full capacity.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who paid an urgent visit to the region, promised that people affected by the fire would be paid 300,000 hryvnyas in compensation and 20,000 hryvnyas of support money.
Police have opened a criminal case over the wildfires, suspecting a breach of fire safety regulations which caused fatalities and gross damage to property.
Donbas
Three Ukrainian servicemen were wounded as a result of nine attacks by the Russian occupying troops in Donbas. In particular, the enemy used 120-mm and 82-mm mortars banned by the Minsk agreements in the suburbs of Avdiyivka.
A day earlier, four Ukrainian servicemen were wounded amid 13 ceasefire violations.
The UK has provided the State Border Service of Ukraine with 10 DJI MAVIC drones worth over 1.2m hryvnyas. They will be used to monitor the border from the air. The British side will also teach Ukrainian border guards how to use them efficiently.
Poroshenko's cases
Notorious judge Serhiy Vovk of Kyiv's Pecherskyy district court has again failed to choose a measure of restraint for ex-President Petro Poroshenko in the case of Serhiy Semochko's appointment as deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, which prosecution believes may have been carried out by means of a "clearly criminal order".
A former commander of a military unit of the State Border Service is suspected of assisting the illegal crossing of the border by President Petro Poroshenko and persons who accompanied him during a trip to the Maldives in 2018, the Prosecutor-General's Office has said. The officer allegedly issued an illegal order to his subordinates to allow the group to cross the border illegally outside a checkpoint.
Language ombudsman
The Cabinet of Ministers has appointed Ukrainian-language teacher Taras Kremin the authorised representative for the protection of the state language (language ombudsman). He is a co-author of the law "On the state language".
Coronavirus
Ukraine has registered 804 new coronavirus cases by the morning of 8 July. However, according to Health minister Maksym Stepanov, there has been a record-high number of recoveries, 926. The total number of cases has reached 50,414, the Health Ministry added.
Polio risk
Due to the low level of vaccination, Ukraine is at high risk of polio outbreaks, according to the conclusions reached by the European Regional Commission for the Certification of Polio Eradication (RCC) and quoted by the Kyiv city state administration on its Facebook page.
Culture
The Cabinet of Ministers has allocated 1bn hryvnyas to culture and creative industries. Some of the money will be used as compensation for losses incurred by culture institutions during the coronavirus quarantine.
Education
The Kyiv city state administration has advised all educational establishments to prepare distance education programmes for a new school year. Currently, most regions are not prepared to the phase of the quarantine easing which would have allowed opening schools.
Crime
A cache containing 4.9 kg of TNT, 17 RGD-5 grenades, 11 F-1 grenades and two mines was found close to energy facilities in Odesa. In case of detonation, several districts would have been cut from power. A cache was allegedly arranged by a serviceman who stole the explosives and ammunition from his military unit for sale.