TODAY: Situation in Ukraine volatile ahead of ceasefire; Mariupol battered by shelling; journalist awarded posthumous medal; France says Mistral deal could go ahead on certain conditions; Ukraine candy ban. Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina launch news agency; gay rights activist seeks asylum abroad.  

Heavy shelling has been witnessed in the area of the Mariupol port in eastern Ukraine, as Ukrainian forces attempt to push back an attempt by rebels to take the strategic port on the sea of Azov.  The port is crucial for steel exports and would leave Russia in control of the coastline.  This is just hours before a ceasefire, long in the making, is to come into effect. Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has expressed cautious optimism about the truce, though he has reportedly surprised NATO officials by revealing that, while NATO was not furnishing Ukraine with weapons, at least one country, whose name he did not reveal, was providing Kiev with armaments.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in comments made at the September 4-5 NATO summit in Wales, asserted that there is a consensus among NATO members that there cannot be a military solution to the crisis in Ukraine.  A Russian TV crew from REN-TV television channel has reportedly come under fire in Donetsk.  President Putin has signed a decree to posthumously award the late Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin with an Order of Bravery.  Is Russia trolling NATO on Twitter with toy tanks?  The MICEX continue to show signs of recovery thanks to reports of the truce.