Internal Security News

• (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian Interior Minster Arsen Avakov stated that Ukrainian investigators believe the explosion on the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline in Ukraine was caused by an explosive device placed under a concrete block.
   
• Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval said that Ukrainian armed forces are about to complete restoring control at the state border.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) acting defense minister, Mykhailo Koval, told journalists that the Ukrainian army will unilaterally cease fire in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the next few days.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that Ukrainian law enforcers will unilaterally cease fire in eastern regions in order to give members of illegal armed units a chance to disarm themselves and Russian mercenaries wishing to leave the country to do so.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The UN’s head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the Americas, Europe and Central Asia stated that 356 people have been killed since the start of the operation in southeastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) A total of 147 Ukrainian servicemen have died during Kiev’s army operation in Ukraine’s eastern regions.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko insisted at the request of the OSCE on a thorough inquiry into the death of Igor Kornelyuk, a journalist of the Russian broadcaster VGTRK, near Luhansk.
   
• Speaking at the National University of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s graduation, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that “Ukraine is in a state of war,” and that Russia is waging “a new type of warfare - with the use of professional subversive groups, mercenaries, volunteers, and the local population. And these volunteers and the local population have ‘washed’ brains in a huge part due to the information war.”
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Four servicemen were killed in an attack by members of illegal armed groups in the vicinity of Luhansk on June 17.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk ordered concerned agencies and companies to step up the security of the Ukrainian gas transport system (GTS).
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Luhansk separatists and the Ukrainian military started to exchange the bodies of fighters killed during Kyiv’s operation in east Ukraine, the press office of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic said.
   

Diplomacy News

• (RIA Novosti) A spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee stated that Russian investigators believe the detention of journalists from Russian television channel Zvezda in Ukraine were carried out with the knowledge of Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Dnipropetrovsk Region Governor Ihor Kolomoyskyi.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov stated that he views the criminal inquiry launched by the Russian authorities against him and the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional state administration, Ihor Kolomoisky, as a high praise of their work for the benefit of Ukraine. “Thank you for highly rating my and Ihor Vasylyovych's work, "Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.
   
• US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Washington does not yet possess information confirming the deaths of Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s Armed Forces are prepared for any scenario in Ukraine, Russian lawmaker Vadim Solovyov told ITAR-TASS, citing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, during which they discussed the situation in Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Poroshenko asked Putin to assist Kiev in the release of all journalists and activists detained in the turbulent Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia will not take part in the June and October sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) unless the powers of the Russian delegation are restored in full, the chairman of the State Duma committee for international affairs, Alexei Pushkov, said.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian FM Lavrov stated that the introduction of martial law in eastern Ukraine may give free hand to the Kiev authorities to crack down on independence supporters in the troubled region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked the European Union and the United States to assist in bolstering control over the Ukrainian state border.
   
• Russia’s chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, thinks broader sanctions could be introduced in addition to individual ones against Ukrainian leaders.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s former ruling Party of Regions called on President Petro Poroshenko to initiate talks with the Russian leadership in an effort to resolve the situation in the country’s east.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Verkhovna Rada registered a draft resolution "to temporarily suspend the accreditation of journalists and technical staff of some media in the Russian Federation authorities."
   
• Russian FM Lavrov said that Russia expects the Ukrainian authorities to provide a full-scale rather than temporary ceasefire in southeastern regions.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia was considering the idea of creating a contact group on Ukraine crisis within the framework of the OSCE, according to a senior Russian lawmaker.
   
• (RIA Novosti) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Ukraine’s authorities to ensure security of the civilian population in the zone of the ongoing special operation in the country’s southeast.
   

International Observation Missions

• (ITAR-TASS) The monitoring mission of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Office expressed regret that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry and security service do not cooperate with UN experts in investigating the tragic events in Odessa.
   

Governance

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he is waiting for a decision by the Verkhovna Rada to hold early parliamentary elections.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Poroshenko said that the army will always be the No. 1 priority for the state.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian government approved a bill on introducing a state of emergency in the energy sector and a bill on operating and modernizing the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS) together with European and U.S. investors.
   
• (RIA Novosti) President Petro Poroshenko suggested dismissing acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchytsia in light of his offensive comments regarding Russian President Putin. Poroshenko nominated Pavlo Klimkin, currently ambassador to Germany,
  as his candidate for foreign minister, the parliamentary website said.
   
• Several draft resolutions on the dissolution of the Ukrainian parliament were registered in the Verkhovna Rada.
   
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked parliament to dismiss the country's central bank governor, Stepan Kubiv.

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