Internal Security News

• (RIA Novosti) A journalist from the Russian state-run VGTRK television news station, Igor Kornelyuk, died of injuries suffered during a mortar attack outside the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
   
• An explosion on a gas pipeline in the Poltava region of Ukraine was under investigation, with terrorism considered a priority theory, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukraine's state company Naftogaz Ukrainy tightened security of the country's gas transportation system following an explosion at the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhgorod trunk pipeline in the Poltava region.
   
• Six people died in clashes in Kramatorsk on June 16, the Donetsk regional administration press office said in a statement.
   
• The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's Volodymyr Chepovy claimed an epidemiological situation in Sloviansk and water supply problems in a number of populated localities in the Donetsk region.
   
• Fighters of the Ukrainian National Guard arrived at the state border in the Donetsk region. 
   
• Ukraine considers the Geneva accords the basic instrument for de-escalating the situation in the country's east, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
   

Diplomacy News

• (ITAR-TASS) Relations between Russia and Ukraine have entered a new stage and are “on a way to serious conflict”, said State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee head Alexei Pushkov.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The world is on the verge of open confrontation, Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine’s parliament recommended that the government unilaterally demarcate the border with Russia and close checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Russian border.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia will not recognize Kyiv’s decision on the unilateral demarcation of the border, which would lead to ongoing border disputes, Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest urged Western states to use the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine to support Kyiv.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema announced that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko imposed a ban on military-technological cooperation with Russia at a meeting of the country's National Security and Defense Council
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian Foreign Minsitry called for Western countries to apply a third package of sanctions against Russia.
   
• Ukraine’s National Security Council chief said that Russia has amassed as many as 38,000 soldiers on its borders with Ukraine and continues to supply arms and personnel to rebel forces in the eastern part of the country.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights stated that Russia’s Foreign Ministry is preparing for the release of the second White Book on humanitarian crimes in Ukraine’s east, and is calling on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN to carry out an investigation.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian FM Lavrov said that all members of OSCE must urge Kiev to adopt the roadmap for crisis settlement.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed fears of a possible split in the EU because of the situation in Ukraine.
   
• The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Germany supported the peace plan of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at a meeting held in Tallinn.
   
• United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the downing of the Ukrainian Il-76 plane in Luhansk, which killed all 49 people aboard.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Japan intends to continue promoting the development of economic and political stability in Ukraine, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said.

• The European Union said on Tuesday that Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine were stable, refusing to speculate how Brussels would react if Russia started accusing Ukraine of siphoning the gas intended for Europe in a repetition of the previous gas crises.

Governance

• (ITAR-TASS) The Verkhovna Rada recommended that President Poroshenko introduce martial law in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and replace the chiefs of all law enforcement agencies and the Foreign Ministry.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The National Security and Defense Council is considering an issue of imposing martial law in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, NSDC Secretary Andriy Parubiy said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that the Cabinet of Ministers will consider a bill on introducing a state of emergency in the power industry.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed UDAR party MP Iryna Heraschenko to the recently established post of presidential envoy for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in the country's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
   
•  (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a meeting with the founder of Open Society Foundations George Soros, at which Soros informed the head of state about the initiative of the strategic plan of reforms for Ukraine.
   

International Observation Missions

• The Verkhovna Rada urged the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, and European Parliament to intervene in the situation with non-observance of rights of Ukrainians in Russia, noting the harassment and non-observance of the rights of Ukrainians in Russia.

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