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Daily Ukraine Crisis Updates – June 2, 2014
News | June 03, 2014
EWI offers a daily situation report on Ukraine.
Internal Security News
- (Interfax Ukraine) About 500 representatives of the armed formations fighting against the Ukrainian army continued storming the control post of the Luhansk border squadron in a firefight that lasted throughout the day of June 2. Reports indicated that at least five separatists had been killed.
- (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s ‘special operation’ against pro-Russian militants in the country’s southeast could last as long as one year, said Semen Semenchenko, commander of the Donbass battalion, a pro-Kyiv militia set up by the Right Sector nationalist movement.
- At least two persons were killed in an explosion at Luhansk Regional State Administration, director of the healthcare department of Luhansk Regional State Administration Pavlo Malysh said.
- (ITAR-TASS) Militants claimed that one person was killed and ten wounded in an alleged bomb attack by the Ukrainian Air Force on the building of the regional administration in the east Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
- The spokesman of the Ukrainian ‘anti-terrorist’ operation stated that the explosion at Luhansk Regional State Administration building occurred inside the building, there was no bombing from the outside or from aircraft.
- One person was killed and another injured as a result of armed “Donetsk People’s Republic” militants storming the Shakhtar district police department in Donetsk.
- (RIA Novosti) The authorities of Ukraine’s Luhansk region urged all the fighting parties to put down the arms and come to the negotiation table, according to a statement published on Luhansk regional Council’s web portal.
Diplomacy News
- (Interfax Ukraine) A pre-trial inquiry into Russian citizens' alleged role in setting up criminal armed formations and training mercenaries to carry out terrorist operations in Ukraine was started by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office.
- (ITAR-TASS) Russia took over the U.N. Security Council chairmanship from South Korea on June 1 and will hand it over to Rwanda on July 1.
- Russian FM Lavrov announced Russia’s plans to plans to submit to the UN Security Council a draft resolution on the stabilization of the situation in Ukraine. The draft will propose the creation of humanitarian corridors in the east to ensure that civilians can freely leave the conflict zone in Ukraine and will call for the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.
- Russia's permanent envoy to NATO on Monday slammed the North Atlantic alliance for "unprecedented" military activity near Russian borders and for boosting military budgets.
- UK Prime Minister David Cameron was scheduled to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin for face-to-face talks over the Ukraine crisis in Normandy on June 6.
- Russia granted Ukraine another week before it will start demanding prepayment for gas, without which it has threatened to cut off supplies.
- (RIA Novosti) The Russian Energy Ministry confirmed it had received $786.4 million from Ukraine as payment for gas deliveries in February and March.
- (RIA Novosti) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced his surprise at the Western media’s spin of the ongoing bloodshed in southeastern Ukraine and the fact that they either hushed up the real situation or showed “different pictures” instead.
- (RIA Novosti) The number of Russian citizens supporting the possible reunification with southeastern regions of Ukraine decreased, while the independence of the region from both Ukraine and Russia is supported by the majority of respondents, according to the survey published on the Levada-Center pollster website.
- Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov stated that he believes a no-fly zone should be imposed over the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
- The Greek government expressed its desire to revive plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline’s branch to Greece frozen by the Russian gas monopoly.
International Observation Missions News
- (Interfax Ukraine) The OSCE said it still has no concrete demands made of it for the release of two teams of monitors seized in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, despite reports of their release.
- (ITAR-TASS) A spokesman for the OSCE said that the organization will continue working in east Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions despite incidents when their observers went missing there.
Governance News
- (Interfax Ukraine) Ukraine's acting president Turchynov signed a law on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine on the state anti-corruption policy to implement the action plan to simplify visa regime with the EU.
- (ITAR-TASS) The nationalist Svoboda party suggested the introduction of martial law in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, party leader Oleh Tyahnybok said. He also called for the closing of borders with Russia and stated that a bill proposing these measures has already been introduced to the Rada.