Internal Security News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Two Ukrainian military were killed and 42 injured during an active phase of the anti-terrorist operation in Sloviansk. 
   
• Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the military actions at the edge of insurgent-held Sloviansk and in the nearby village of Semenivka are an “active offensive phase” of the government’s anti-terrorism operation.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian State Border Guard Service stated that the headquarters of the Luhansk border guard unit remained besieged by armed groups, adding that the storming could resume any time.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) According to the Donetsk regional Administration, approximately 15,000 people have left Donetsk amid ongoing hostilities between Ukrainian government forces and the armed proponents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. In addition, about 40% of those inhabiting Sloviansk have left the city.
   
• Ukraine’s acting Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitsky said that a total of 181 people, including 59 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, have died as a result of armed clashes in the eastern regions of Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) A spokesman for the self-proclaimed ‘People’s Republic of Luhansk’ called the airstrike on the city center, which killed eight, a war crime committed by the Kyiv authorities.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Royal Dutch Shell temporarily halted drilling for shale gas on the border of Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions to protect its personnel from clashes that intensified between anti-Kyiv activists in the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Ukrainian army.
   

Diplomacy News

• (RIA Novosti) Moscow officially informed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) about its decision to halt bilateral cooperation and skip the summer session.
   
• Ukrainian PM Yatsenyuk stated that Ukraine has filed two lawsuits with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding Crimea's annexation and Russia's liability to Ukraine.
   
• NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the alliance still considered Crimea a territory of Ukraine and urged Russia to give the territory back.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Rasmussen reiterated that NATO does not see military action as a right way to solve the crisis in Ukraine and favors political and diplomatic settlement.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mikhail Koval Ukraine stated that Ukraine receives only non-lethal weapons from NATO countries.
   
• The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its regret over the politicized reaction of a number of members of the United Nations Security Council to the Russian draft resolution calling for humanitarian corridors to be open in southeast Ukraine, claiming that its motion was entirely humanitarian. 
   
• (RIA Novosti) A White House statement indicated that US President Barack Obama would request that Congress approve a $1 billion plan to boost US military presence in Eastern Europe.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukraine's Foreign Ministry reported that about 20 heads of state and government confirmed their participation in President-elect Poroshenko’s inauguration ceremony on June 7. Attendees will include Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, and OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine's Acting Prime Minister Yatsenyuk urged the European Union to block the planned Russian South Stream gas pipeline, currently under construction and expected to transfer Russian oil and gas to central and southern Europe via Black Sea bypassing Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) President-elect Poroshenko was slated to meet with the Polish, French, and German presidents, along with US President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, during a trip to Poland and France from June 3-6. 
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the WWII D-Day ceremonies in Normandy, France, on June 6. A meeting between Putin and Obama was not planned. 
   
• French President Hollande will host two separate dinners hours apart to keep US President Obama and Russian President Putin apart during visits to Paris. 
   
• (RIA Novosti) An Italian reconnaissance vessel, the Elettra, was expected to arrive in the Black Sea by June 15. It will replace a French frigate, leaving the number of NATO ships in the area at 3. 
   
• Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to issue instructions to his secretariat and the government on providing assistance to refugees from the southeastern regions of Ukraine and residents of Crimea experiencing difficulties with acquiring Russian citizenship due to problems with residency registration.
   

International Observation Missions News

• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE announced that it was reducing the number of observers in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Eastern Ukraine for security reasons.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE stated that observers being held in east Ukraine were “safe.”
   

Governance News 

• (Interfax Ukraine) The Verkhovna Rada ruled that the newly elected president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, will be inaugurated at the Rada on Saturday, June 7.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) 20 members of the Verkhovna Rada left the Party of Regions faction.