Internal Security News

• Ukrainian forces reclaimed the port city of Mariupol after heavy fighting with pro-Russian separatists. The government said there had been many casualties after an operation to expel separatists in the city began at dawn.
   
• 40 members of illegal armed groups were killed in a fight on June 12 near the town of Stepanivka in the Donetsk region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) An Interior Ministry advisor stated that a corridor for the removal of civilians from the counter-terrorist operation zone will probably be set up on the road to the town of Krasny Lyman (Donetsk region).
   
• (ITAR-TASS) About two dozen people tried to break into the building of Kyiv prosecutor's office, demanding to dismiss the Prosecutor Nicholas Gerasimyuk and conduct personnel changes in the department.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov blamed "militia" for the ceasefire talks' failure.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Avakov stated that eleven members of illegal armed groups have been detained in the active phase of the anti-terrorist operation in Mariupol.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered Donetsk regional state administration head Serhiy Taruta to temporarily move the administration's office to Mariupol.
   
• The Mejlis (parliament) of the Crimean Tatar People said it is concerned over cases of kidnapping and disappearances of people in Crimea, as well as Crimean authorities' lack of response to such cases.
   
• One person was killed and another two injured after a shell struck a vegetable warehouse in the Dobropillia district of Donetsk region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A statement on the website of the regional administration of Donetsk  said “The city is living a normal life: municipal transport is operating, preparations for the upcoming heating season are in full swing, enterprises are functioning in the regular regime, preschool institutions are open and school summer camps are at work. Traffic police and patrols stay alert."
   

International Observation Missions News  

• (Interfax Ukraine) No group of members of illegal armed formations had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of observers of the OSCE's special monitoring mission in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
   
• The OSCE sent special envoy Heidi Tagliavini to Ukraine to help to settle the situation on the east of the country.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) UN Secretary General Farhan Haq said that UN observers in Ukraine will check on reports on the use of incendiary bombs and other prohibited ammunition in the country’s east.
   

Diplomacy News

• (RIA Novosti) The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that Russian FM Lavrov and Ukrainian FM Deschytsia had a telephone conversation during which they discussed the 16 Ukrainian children who were allegedly taken to Russia’s Rostov region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that reports of the illegal transportation of 16 orphans from the Donetsk town of Snizhne to Russia have been confirmed and added that Russia has violated a number of agreements by passing them through its border without proper permits.
   
• The EU and US urged Russia to stop arming Ukraine rebels after Ukraine said Russian tanks and artillery crossed the border on June 12.
   
• Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Andrei Kelin said that the immediate halt of the army operation in Ukraine is the key to the alleviation of tensions.
   
• Ukraine's state gas company said Kyiv was ready to pay a compromise price of $326 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian natural gas for an interim 18-month period to allow time to end a pricing dispute with Moscow.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Spanish Foreign Ministry announced that Spain will send four fighter jets to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in response to the crisis in Ukraine. The decision was made during negotiations between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine announced that President Poroshenko will make his first official visit to Brussels on June 27 to sign the Association Agreement.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Board Chairman of Naftogaz said that Ukraine is ready to pay $ 1.9 billion to Russia for gas consumed if an agreement on the interim price of $ 326 per 1,000 cubic meters is reached.
   

Governance

• Dnipropetrovsk regional state administration deputy head Hennadiy Korban presented to the Ukrainian presidential administration an engineering project and a feasibility study of a 1,920-kilometers-long wall along the Russian border with an approximate value of euro 100 million.
   
• A working group to speed up judicial system reform in Ukraine was created according to the decree of president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
   

Constitutional Reform

• The European Commission made a first disbursement of EUR 250 million to Ukraine to support institutions and reforms in the country. This payment is part of the "State Building Contract" program signed on May 13 after a joint meeting between the European Commission and the Ukrainian government in Brussels.
   

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