Internal Security News

• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered the creation of humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee areas of the east hit by conflict.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The head of Kyiv City State Administration announced that the Kyiv territorial defense battalion was on its way to the Donbas area, with 430 private soldiers and 32 officers.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled an attack on the Luhansk airfield.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukrainian forces continued shelling Sloviansk, though initial reports indicated the shelling was less intense than in previous days.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ described President Poroshenko’s promises of a cease fire in Ukraine’s eastern regions within a week as ‘air shaking’. “If all the troops are pulled back, these words could be turned into reality.”
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Donetsk regional administration confirmed the deaths of two children from fragmentation wounds in Sloviansk.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The ‘people’s mayor’ of the east Ukrainian city of Sloviansk was reportedly dismissed from his post and arrested.
   

Diplomacy News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Russian FM Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia will not introduce sanctions against Ukraine if Kyiv signs an association agreement with the European Union. "We are not obsessed with 'the sanction itch' typical of some of our partners.”
   
• (RIA Novosti) Polish FM Sikorski said that the possibility of Ukraine’s membership in NATO is currently not on the agenda.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian FM Lavrov stated that Russia and its partners are convinced that dialogue and cessation of violence are vital for
  reconciliation in Ukraine regardless of how the sides interpret the Ukrainian crisis. He also said that Kyiv must stop its military operation in eastern Ukraine and start direct dialogue with independence supporters, otherwise the crisis in the country will continue for a long time.
   
• Ukrainian President Poroshenko confirmed Ukraine's readiness to sign the full text of the Association Agreement with the EU as soon as possible.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said that the United States is not planning to place missile defense systems in Ukraine and Georgia.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Another round of Russian-Ukrainian gas talks involving a representative of the EU, which was held in Brussels, again ended without a final agreement.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs, called for imposing possible sanctions targeted against individuals and Ukraine as a state for violation of the rights of Russian journalists working in Ukraine.
   

Governance News 

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed the founder of Ukrainian Media Holding (UMH), Borys Lozhkin, head of the presidential administration. Poroshenko also appointed Hennadiy Zubko as first deputy head of the presidential administration, Oleh Rafalsky as deputy head of the presidential administration, and diplomat Yuriy Onischenko as presidential first aide. Channel 5 journalist Sviatoslav Tseholko was named as his press secretary.

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