Internal Security News

• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced a weeklong cease-fire in the country’s east on June 20.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Poroshenko warned that the Ukrainian government has a ‘Plan B’ should the ceasefire be used by separatist militias to ‘drag time and regroup their forces.”
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian presidential press service said on June 20 that Poroshenko’s statement on ceasefire looked more like an ultimatum to Ukraine’s southeast.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The separatist forming the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic refused to lay down arms in response to the June 20 statement of Ukrainian President Poroshenko on unilateral ceasefire in southeast Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Defense Ministry, noted attempts to use provocations for violating the ceasefire that President Petro Poroshenko announced.
   
• Representatives of Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Russian Federation began multilateral talks at Donetsk Regional State Administration.
   
• Donetsk was set as the host of a meeting of the Ukraine-Russia-OSCE contact group on settling the situation in Donbas.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov said on June 20 that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had shut down the Ukrainian-Russian border.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia's Novoshakhtinsk border checkpoint in the southern Rostov region underwent shelling by the Ukrainian military, according to a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 20. "The incident has inflicted a partial destruction and a customs officer has received sever wounds."
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Ukrainian Defense Ministry refuted Russia’s claims, issuing a statement saying that “Ukrainian military have not been using artillery or mortars” in the areas adjoining the Ukrainian-Russian border.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) A shooting took place between separatists and Ukrainian troops and National Guard in the area of the Dolzhansky checkpoint on Ukraine’s border with Russia’s Rostov Region in the evening of June 20. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said it had launched an inquiry into the incident.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Donetsk regional state administration dismissed allegations that 40 children had been killed since the government launched the ‘anti-terrorist’ operation in the region, with the Health Ministry placing the number of children killed at 4 in Donetsk with no data available from Luhansk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Two people were hurt in an attempt of the nationalists and supporters of an integral Ukraine to break through police cordons towards the Lenin Monument on Kharkiv Freedom Square where pro-Russian activists were holding a demonstration.
   

Diplomacy News

• The Russian Presidential administration issued a statement on June 22 claiming that President Putin supported Petro Poroshenko's ceasefire decision in the south-eastern regions.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia backs efforts by Ukraine to launch an all-inclusive national dialogue and will also complement the efforts.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted the importance of implementing the peace plan unveiled by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
   
• A high-ranking NATO official stated that NATO will create a Trust Fund to support the defense potential of Ukraine on the long-term perspective.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The US added seven high-ranking officials from the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk to its list of individuals subjected to asset freezes and travel bans.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Council of the European Union approved the sending of a police mission to Ukraine for two years.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Technical preparations for the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, created to establish a free trade area and political and economic bond between Ukraine and the 28 member states, were finalized.
   
• The 28 EU foreign ministers prohibited any imports of goods from Crimea to the EU if the goods don’t carry Ukrainian certificates.
   
• Several European foreign ministers threatened further sanctions if Russia fails to cooperate with Ukraine's proposed peace plan and doesn't stop the flow of arms and militants across its border into eastern Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the need for a sustainable ceasefire in the southeast of Ukraine as a condition for dialogue between the conflicting parties as he spoke with his German counterpart.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Energy Ministry denied reports Ukraine is siphoning off gas bound for Europe, explaining that the gas meters are merely showing a technical recalculation.
   
• Naftogaz Ukrainy expected three-party talks on gas with Russia and the European Commission to resume in July.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Two of three Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees landed in Crimea and in the Rostov region on the border with Ukraine’s restive Luhansk.
   

International Observation Missions

• German magazine Der Spiegel alleged that Western diplomats believe leading Ukrainian Cossacks could be behind the abduction of two teams of OSCE observers in eastern Ukraine, who have been held for over a month.

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