Belarus
Ukrainian law enforcers will share information about crimes committed by the Wagner private military company in Ukraine with their Belarusian colleagues, Interior Minister Arsen Avakiv has said. "We hope that this will help independent Belarus to defend itself against the threat of terrorism and sabotage by Wagner PMC mercenaries," he said.
Ukraine has formally asked Minsk to extradite Wagner mercenaries who fought in Donbas and were recently detained in Belarus, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office has said.
Donbas
Ex-President Leonid Kravchuk, 86, recently appointed as head of the Ukrainian delegation to the trilateral contact group on Donbas, has said former Prime Minister Vitold Fokin (1990-1992), 87, may join the group. Speaking on Ukrayina 24 TV, Fokin is well-known in Donbas and "can say what people who live there want strategically, nationally or else".
Army
The spring conscription campaign, during which 16,000 young men were enlisted in military service, has finished.
Coronavirus
The state emergencies commission has put Lutsk, Ternopil and Kitsman District of Chernivtsi Region into the so-called red zone by the number of occupied hospital beds, number of tests done, infection ratio and dynamics.
Economy
The National Bank of Ukraine has said that in April-June, the country's economy went 11% down, compared with the same period in 2019.
Crime
Activists of the "Who ordered [the murder] of Katya Handzyuk?" movement held a rally outside the Interior Ministry on the evening of 31 July to freshen up the authorities' memory about "the names of those who sabotaged the investigation into the attack on Katya and covered up the perpetrators of the crime". Handzyuk was splashed with sulphuric acid this day two years ago.
The National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine has searched the head office of Smart Energy, a company incorporated into Vadym Novinskyy's Smart Holding. The search was carried out as part of the investigation into a special permit to extract hydrocarbons which was issued to Arkona Gas-Energy in 2017.
The Security Service of Ukraine has detained the organiser of a group engaged in the sale of lethal weapons illegally manufactured in Ukraine. The searches revealed three submachine guns of the SA-26 system and nine cartridges, a Fort-201 carbine, almost 500 rounds of ammunition of various calibres, nine cartridges to a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and a large number of spare parts and components for small arms and ammunition.
Maksym Kryvosh, who took a bus full of people hostage in Lutsk on 21 July, has announced a hunger strike in a remand centre, according to VolynPost. His lawyer said that his client was protesting against the conditions of his detention, in particular the use of handcuffs.