Europe

Internal Security News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised not to use aircraft and heavy artillery in the army operation in Donetsk, Donetsk Mayor Oleksandr Lukianchenko said. "Over the past 24 hours alone, our servicemen have defused 700 explosive devices which the terrorists have left behind in Sloviansk," he said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Danylo Lubkivsky, said illegal armed formations continue gunfire attacks in the eastern regions and are not going to lay down their arms.
   
• Defense Minister Valeriy Heletei said there will be no more unilateral ceasefire by the Ukrainian units engaged in the army operation in eastern Ukraine.
   
• Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the gunfire attack in Luhansk which killed two civilians and wounded eight others was launched by the militants. (On July 7, Russian media, citing a source from the ‘people’s militia’, reported heavy artillery fire in Luhansk, claiming several people were killed and several buildings damaged.)
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A fourth bridge was blown up in Donetsk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Armed men seized the building of the neurosurgery unit of the Kalinin Hospital in Donetsk, according to the Donetsk regional state administration's health care department.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A special procedure for restoring liberated cities will be discussed at a meeting of the government on July 9, Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov said.
   
• President Petro Poroshenko named Vasyl Grytsak the new chief of military operations against separatists in eastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukrainian aviation authority Gosaviasluzhba closed the airspace in the east of the country because of the military operation.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Dovzhansky and Diakove border checkpoints in Luhansk region and another two positions of tactical groups of Ukrainian law enforcers came under mortar fire overnight.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Dnipropetrovsk Region State Administration head Ihor Kolomoisky proposed confiscating the assets of supporters and sponsors of terrorism and transfer them to a special-purpose open joint stock company whose shareholders will be partakers in the army operation and families of servicemen who died fighting in eastern Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Poroshenko proposed Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region, as a venue of the next round of the Donbas peace talks.
   
• The administration of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic was skeptical about Poroshenko’s proposal to hold a next round of consultations on the peace process in the east in Sviatohirsk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) A Lenin monument was removed overnight in the village of Chervona Sloboda, Sumy region, the Ukrainian Communist Party said.
   

Diplomacy News

• (RIA Novosti) Russia asked for an urgent convention of the OSCE Permanent Council and presented a draft decision demanding the cessation of hostilities and resumption of truce measures to alleviate the humanitarian situation in the east of Ukraine. Russia is concerned with humanitarian implications of Ukraine’s plan to blockade the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia has called for a withdrawal of all Ukrainian forces from the conflict zone.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian lawmakers will promote the White Book, a Foreign Ministry compilation of human rights violations in Ukraine during the conflict, to provide "objective information" about the crisis in the country, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini discussed international support for Ukraine. "The president praised the efforts of Germany and France, which allowed the formation of the so-called "Normandy four" [Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France] with the participation of Russia. Still, according to him, the international influence could be much stronger if Italy and Britain joined France and Germany," reported the presidential press service.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration said that Ukrainian accession to NATO is not on current agenda. Valeriy Chaly said that though he finds the nation’s non-aligned status problematic, the issue should be put on the agenda after Ukraine’s domestic problems are resolved, the public sentiment altered, and relevant public support gained.
   
• An EU source said that European Union ambassadors will meet Wednesday to consider increasing the number of people hit with EU asset freezes and travel bans for their actions against Ukraine's government.
   
• Russia's top gas producer, Gazprom, said that Ukraine has not met its payment deadline for June resulting in its total debt to the company rising to $5.3 billion.
   
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Ukraine is awaiting a clear sign of the readiness of Russia and the separatists to begin peace talks in the east.
   
•  (RIA Novosti) Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogerini said during a briefing with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin in Kyiv that Rome is ready to provide broad support for reforms in Ukraine.
   
• European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said the work of the EU Police Mission in Ukraine, as a part of the joint security and defense policy, will help to return the trust of the people in the state.
   
•  (ITAR-TASS) Slovenian FM Carl Eryavets said that the country supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but believes that Kiev has to protect the Russian minority.
   

Governance News

• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian Justice Ministry asked Kyiv's District Administrative Court to ban the activity of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
   

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Internal Security News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Tensions in the area of the army operation in eastern Ukraine are the highest in Donetsk, Horlivka, Luhansk, Snizhne, Antratsyt, Krasnodon and Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry press service said on July 7.
   
• Ukrainian forces recaptured the city of Sloviansk on July 5, driving pro-Russian militants from the city and hoisting the Ukrainian flag over the city council. Militants fled to Kramatorsk, from which they were subsequently driven as Ukrainian forces retook that city. Ukrainian forces also regained the eastern cities of Artemivsk and Druzhkivka. Additionally, the state flag of Ukraine was reportedly raised over the town council building in Kostiantynivka (Donetsk region) on July 7.
   
• Pro-Russian rebels were reportedly regrouping in Donetsk over the weekend after being driven from Sloviansk. Rebels retreating from Sloviansk, some driving armored vehicles flying Russian flags, drove 110 km (65 miles) south into Donetsk over the weekend. About 1,000 of them held a bellicose rally in the central square on July 6, and on July 7 many were visible on the streets, having established checkpoints to check the documents of drivers. The city of Luhansk also remained under separatist control.
   
• The Ukrainian government forces will not use aviation to fire against the militant positions in Donetsk and Luhansk, said Andriy Lysenko, a spokesperson for the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).
   
• Mykhaylo Koval, a senior Ukrainian security official, said government troops were preparing to continue the operation against the separatists by blockading Luhansk and Donetsk. "There is a clear strategic plan, which has been approved. The plan is focused on two major regional centres: Luhansk and Donetsk. These cities will be completely blockaded," Mr Koval said. Deutsche Welle reported that Ukrainian forces had arrived and begun blockading Donetsk in the late afternoon of July 7.
   
• Three bridges were destroyed on roads leading into the city of Donetsk on July 7 ahead of an expected offensive from government forces.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian media, citing a source from people’s militia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, reported heavy artillery fire in Luhansk on July 7, during which several people were killed and several buildings damaged.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine’s army delivered an air strike against Luhansk’s suburb of Alexandrovka and the city’s Kamennobrodsky district on July 6.
   
• The secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Andriy Parubiy, admitted that martial law could soon be declared in the country's eastern region and a document for such a case has already been drafted.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, Valeriy Bolotov, dismissed the "republic's" government on July 4, according to a decree published on the LPR Web site. The ministers will continue to work until a new cabinet is formed.
   
•  (Interfax Ukraine) The secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Andriy Parubiy, stated that martial law could soon be declared in the country's eastern region, and said the NSDC has already drafted a document that permits the introduction of martial law in these parts of the country.
   

Diplomacy News

• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of said that the ministry continues to record humanitarian and war crimes in the southeast of Ukraine, and is striving to put a halt to the violence in the region.
   
• The conditions set by the Ukrainian government for total disarmament of the unlawful armed groups are impeding the peace process in the southeastern Ukraine, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) officially confirmed that the airspace over Crimea belongs to Ukraine and the organization denied information spread by Russian mass media on the negotiations with Russia on the transfer of airspace to its management.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The staff of the Novoshakhtinsk checkpoint in Russia’s southern Rostov Region had to evacuate on July 7 due to shelling at the adjoining Ukrainian Dolzhansky border crossing, Russia’s Southern Customs Administration said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s emergencies ministry (EMERCOM) organized seven more temporary accommodation facilities for refugees coming in from Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini embarked on a four-day trip that includes visits to Kyiv and Moscow. The Italian minister said that by paying the first visits to Ukraine and Russia after Italy assumed the EU presidency, Rome wants to highlight the priority of the search for ways of settling the Ukrainian conflict and find an equilibrium in relations with Moscow after the signing of the EU association agreement by Kyiv.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The United States is ready to impose additional sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine, US Vice President Joseph Biden said in a phone call with Ukrainian President Poroshenko.
   
• Russian President Vladimir Putin called for better relations with the United States in a congratulatory message to President Barack Obama marking U.S. Independence Day on July 4.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Moldova’s TV and radio broadcast authorities banned the Russia 24 TV news channel in Moldova until January 1, 2015.
   

International Observation Missions

• Representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE in Europe met on July 6 to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine, but OSCE officials said no breakthrough was achieved.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s Union of Journalists called on the OSCE to create a contact group to investigate crimes against news professionals.
   

Governance News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk proposed that Ukrainian MPs begin consultations on the reformatting of the composition of the Ukrainian government.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and other government agencies involved in the process have developed proposals for the replacement of natural gas imports, particularly from Russia.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Ukrainian parliament voted against the government’s reform plan for the national gas transportation system.
   

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Greg Austin interprets Putin’s latest speeches and sheds light on Russia’s point-of-view. Read more

Writing for New Europe, EWI's Professorial Fellow Greg Austin argues that the creation of the Eurasian Union—a union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan—will test relations with the EU. Read more 

There were clear warning signs to the Ukraine crisis, says Greg Austin. "If we want to get that future plan right, we do need to have some understanding of what went wrong." Read more 

Greg Austin writes "The Luhansk Border: A New Crisis Point," for New Europe. Read more 

EWI’s Danila Bochkarev busts some prevailing myths and explains why the Ukraine crisis is a political earthquake and not an energy quake. Read more 

Bochkarev says the recent China-Russia gas deal is more practical than political. Read more 

Internal Security News

• (RIA Novosti) A Russian bus and customs terminal were damaged as a result of artillery firing from the Ukrainian territory which hit the Novoshakhtinsk border crossing post, located in Russia. The Russian Federal Security Service said that as a result of the firing at Dolzhansky Ukrainian border crossing post, shared with the Novoshakhtinsk border crossing post located in Russia, several shells landed and exploded on the Russian side.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian government forces destroyed several vehicles belonging to members of illegal armed groups in the area of ​​the anti-terrorist operation in the country's southeastern regions. "In particular, five KamAZ trucks carrying militants were destroyed.”
   
• Two people were killed and a ten-year-old girl injured after a car hit a roadside bomb near the village of Kryva Luka near Kramatorsk.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian media reported that Ukrainian warplanes bombed the village of Staraya Kondrashevka, 20 kilometres from Luhansk, killing seven villagers, including a five-year-old girl, and injuring eight.
   
• Militants robbed a branch of PrivatBank in Donetsk and stole Hr 15 million meant to pay pensions and salaries.
   
• The Ukrainian Defense Ministry denied reports spread on some media sites that 40 paratroopers had been killed.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The union of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’ in eastern Ukraine is working on its own “White Book” on human rights violations.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Heavy artillery fire rocked Kramatorsk in Donetsk on the evening of July 2.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The speaker of the ‘unity parliament’ of union of the self-declared ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk said that despite Kyiv’s promises, there are no humanitarian corridors in southeastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The armed standoff in the east of Ukraine has caused damage to the Luhansk region worth more than 1.3 billion hryvnias (over $100 million).

Diplomacy News

• Russia’s official news agency, Novosti, began referring to the union of the self-declared ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk as Novorossiya on its English-language site, having begun doing so on the Russian-language site on June 26.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after a four-party ministerial meeting in Berlin July 2 that the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia managed to agree on a package of measures which they hope will cumulatively lead to a reliable mutual truce in east Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukrainian border guard authorities said in a statement that Russian combat helicopters violated the country’s borders on several occasions after crossing into the Ukrainian air space on several occasions on the morning of July 3.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Two EU officials said that the EU governments are considering different scenarios to stop new project funding for Russia made by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) as they seek to widen the scope of sanctions aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Karasin said that an exact date and location for the next round of consultations of the three-party contact group on Ukraine have not been fixed yet, but Moscow insists the meetings should take place in Ukraine.
   
• The US State Department said that Washington believes that the actions of the Ukrainian military in the eastern part of Ukraine are moderate and measured.
   
• NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Russia should change its attitude to the events in Ukraine to restore normal relations with NATO.
   
• French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russia's Vladimir Putin to encourage separatists in eastern Ukraine to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s human rights commissioner said the destruction of an orphanage in Sloviansk breaches international humanitarian law.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights said that the ministry may publish a new edition of its “White Book” on human rights violations in Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow expects the results of the four-party ministerial meeting that took place in Berlin on July 2 will persuade Kyiv to return to its previous ceasefire agreement.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Red Cross approved a long-term assistance program for refugees from Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The EU’s Ambassador to Russia said that the European Union hails Russia’s readiness to allow observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as well as Ukrainian border guards at its checkpoints on the border with Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian Foreign Ministry’s White Book on large-scale human rights violations in Ukraine is not “a propaganda product” but an invitation to the international community to act, the Foreign Ministry's human rights ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov said.

International Observation Missions

• (RIA Novosti) The leaders of Russia, Germany and France agreed in a conference call that the OSCE should play a more active role in monitoring the conflict in Ukraine.

Governance 

• (Interfax Ukraine) Proposed constitutional amendments stipulate that Ukrainian will remain the sole state language in Ukraine, the country's President Petro Poroshenko said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Verkhovna Rada appointed Valeriy Heletei defense minister of Ukraine based on the president's recommendation.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that arrived in Ukraine on June 24 to discuss the first revision of the economic program of the country's authorities supported by the IMF's financing will continue working in the country until the end of the week of July 4, a well -informed source in the governmental circles told Interfax-Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian government approved a draft law on the anticorruption strategy until 2017 and 10 top-priority steps to fight corruption for the next six months.

Constitutional Reform

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he is hopeful the amendments to the country's constitution proposed by him will help resolve the crisis in Ukraine's eastern regions.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) President Poroshenko stated that a presidential bill on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine does not extend the powers of the head of state.

Internal Security News

• Fighting intensified in southeast Ukraine following the end of Poroshenko’s ceasefire. At least five Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of separatists had been killed in 24 hours on July 1-2, according to Security Council spokesman Andriy Lisenko. 21 Ukrainian soldiers had been wounded. A Ukrainian military plane came under fire from rebels using portable anti-aircraft weapons, though no casualties were reported.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukraine’s Defense Minister said that a total of 29 Ukrainian troops had been captured by illegal armed groups in southeast Ukraine to date.
   
• Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister stated that a rift is emerging among separatist forces in Donetsk region. Gerashchenko was speaking in reference to the storming by rebel fighters of the Interior Ministry headquarters in central Donetsk on July 1. A conflict ensued during the operation, with some rebels wanting to “fully block the work of the police” and others concerned that this may turn public opinion against them. “There’s a certain balance there, when one half of the terrorists understands that you cannot liquidate the police, and the other half, mostly under orders from Moscow, carries out the instructions of the Russian army or FSB.”
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided that it would be inappropriate to impose martial law on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
   
• The head of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Luhansk, Valeriy Bolotov, said that Hromadske TV journalist Anastasia Stanko and her cameraman Illia Bezkorovainy have been released. Stanko and Bezkorovainy were captured on July 1.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Both parties to the Ukrainian conflict violate human rights, but militiamen do not shell refugees and civilian facilities, Russian Foreign Ministry ombudsman for human rights, democracy and the rule of law Konstantin Dolgov said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The mayor of Donetsk said that the situation in southeastern Ukraine was exacerbated after the resumption of the anti-terrorist operation. "Tensions persist in the city. The situation worsened after the ceasefire had been called off. DPR supporters seized the regional department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry yesterday… One police officer died and 20 people, among them five civilians, sustained wounds of various degrees.”
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Members of illegal armed groups opened fire at the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, which resulted in civilian casualties.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) As a result of combat operations in eastern Ukraine, the city of Sloviansk and part of the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region suffered a power outage.
   
• Kyiv reported mortar fire on the Novoazovsk border post in the Donetsk region on the Ukrainian-Russian border in the early morning of July 2.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Militants in Donetsk and Luhansk began evacuating from the building of Donetsk Regional State Administration, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has reported. "[The] terrorists' ... aim is to withdraw from the city all of their accumulated financial resources and weapons."
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian forces took control of the villages of Stary Karavan and Brusivka in the Donetsk region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Valeriy Chaly said that Kyiv is ready to continue consultations with the involvement of the contact group on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine's east.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Two hundred Ukrainian servicemen and law enforcement personnel died and 619 people had been wounded in eastern Ukraine since the anti-terrorist operation started.
   

Diplomacy News

• (ITAR-TASS) The foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine met in Berlin in a bid to “attempt again to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Moscow strongly demanded that Kyiv abandon shelling civilian towns and villages and return to a real ceasefire.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev blamed Ukrainian President Poroshenko for deaths of people in Ukraine’s embattled southeast and warned that it will be hard for Moscow to develop relations with Kiev in the current conditions.
   
• Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said a "full-scale" gas crisis between Moscow and Kyiv will develop by autumn, after Gazprom last month cut off gas supplies to Ukraine over unpaid bills.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that Washington and its allies will continue to put pressure on Russia in the Ukrainian question.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Kerry, in a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, demanded again that Russia stop supporting separatists in southeastern Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) During this phone call, Lavrov told Kerry that Poroshenko’s decision not to extend the truce regime undermined earlier agreements reached by the Russian, German, French and Ukrainian leaders and unleashed a new spiral of bloodshed with unpredictable consequences.
   
• Russia closed the border with Ukraine at three locations, blocking off escape routes for separatists looking to return to Russia, according to a statement from Ukrainian Security Council spokesman Andriy Lisenko. Crossings have been closed at Gukovo, Donetsk and Novoshakhtinsk in Rostov oblast. They had previously been allowing rebel fighters free access.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian FM Sergei Lavrov expressed concern about the lack of foreign media attention given to Ukrainian refugees.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Moscow demanded that Kyiv  stop firing on peaceful cities if it is still able to consider the consequences of its criminal policy.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said that Washington is not interested in active European participation in settling the Ukrainian crisis. “Relations seem to be cooling, not only with European capitals: we sense the influence of American partners, who are not interested in the European Union being more actively involved in dealing with the Ukrainian tragedy.”
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Investigative Committee recognized 2,700 victims in criminal cases in the Ukrainian crisis.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) President of the European Commission Manuel Barroso said that the EU understood the decision of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko not to renew the ceasefire.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Deputy Security Council Secretary Evgeny Lukyanov alleged that one of the main political goals of the Ukrainian "Euro-Maidan" movement is the further expansion of NATO to the east.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Lukyanov also asserted that advisors from the United States are actively working in Ukraine and developing Kyiv’s strategy.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Instigative Committee official spokesman Vladimir Markin said that the current governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Region, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, is responsible for the death of Anatoly Klyan, the cameraman from Russia’s Channel-1 television station that was fatally shot in Ukraine.
   

International Observation Missions

• The OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly adopted the Baku Declaration, which urges respect for the principles of the inviolability of borders and condemns the occupation of Ukrainian territory.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Swiss Ambassador in Moscow thanked the Russian Orthodox Church for assistance in freeing observers of the OSCE in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Utter failure in efforts to isolate Russia came as one of the main results of the latest OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session, the chairman of the State Duma's Committee on International Affairs, Aleksei Pushkov, said.
   

Governance News

• (Interfax Ukraine) The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, voted to work without a parliamentary recess this summer.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian parliamentary factions of the Batkivschyna and Svoboda parties demanded that President Petro Poroshenko submit the association agreement with the EU to the Verkhovna Rada for ratification without delay.
   
• The Ukrainian government planned to seek parliamentary approval on July 3 for a possible state of emergency in the energy sector which would empower it to dictate to gas companies, including private ones, to whom they should supply gas and for how much.
   

--

More Stories 

Writing for New Europe, EWI's Professorial Fellow Greg Austin argues that the creation of the Eurasian Union—a union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan—will test relations with the EU. Read more 

There were clear warning signs to the Ukraine crisis, says Greg Austin. "If we want to get that future plan right, we do need to have some understanding of what went wrong." Read more 

Greg Austin writes "The Luhansk Border: A New Crisis Point," for New Europe. Read more 

EWI’s Danila Bochkarev busts some prevailing myths and explains why the Ukraine crisis is a political earthquake and not an energy quake. Read more 

Bochkarev says the recent China-Russia gas deal is more practical than political. Read more 

Internal Security News

• Ukrainian forces began military operations in the east of the country, marking a definite end to a tentative ceasefire that had been in place for 10 days.
   
• The operation resumed after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said early on July 1 that Ukraine would not renew a cease-fire with pro-Russian separatists, vowing instead to "attack and liberate our land."
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Members of illegal armed groups in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions continued capturing and kidnapping people, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) reported.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) One law enforcement officer was killed and two others were seriously injured during a storming of the regional police department building in Donetsk.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian National Guard forces began to actively fight on the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Luhansk region, just a few hours after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko lifted the ceasefire.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The military operation’s spokesman said that from in a 24 hour period on June 30-July 1, one Ukrainian law enforcer died and 17 were injured.
   
• Ukrainian Hromadske TV journalist Anastasia Stanko and cameraman Ilya Bezkorovayniy were reportedly captured by separatists belonging to the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic.
   
• Two journalists from the Russian television channel Ren TV were injured by mortar fire in eastern Ukraine, a day after one of their colleagues was shot and killed there.
   
• Illegal armed units of the self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic" said they will be prepared to discuss the possibility of laying down arms only after Ukrainian government forces leave the region.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The positions of illegal groups were targeted with airstrikes. “Self-defense activists” taking side of the Ukrainian army reported locations of illegal armed formations, said the operation’s spokesman." So, three people were taken yesterday and now talks are being held with a big group of self-defense activists," he said.
   
• Kramatorsk’s acting mayor Andrey Borsuk submitted his resignation to the city council. As reasons for the resignation, Borsuk cites the impossibility of managing a city undergoing economic collapse and blocked access to treasury funds.
   

Diplomacy News

• (RIA Novosti) The current global events clearly demonstrate that the unipolar model of the world has failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
   
• The United States said that Russia hasn't taken the necessary steps so far to de-escalate the situation in the eastern part of Ukraine.
   
• Ukrainian President Poroshenko urged the EU to act more decisively in standing up to Russia while defending his decision to end a 10-day ceasefire.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Putin stated that the events in Ukraine provoked by the West are a concentrated political expression of deterrence toward Russia and an attempt to create a tense center on the Russian border.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Foreign Ministry alleged that external influence pushed Kyiv to decide against extending the ceasefire in southeast Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Poroshenko said Ukraine is ready to hold consultations with Russia and the EU on July 11 to discuss the implementation of the association agreement.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Association Agreement signed between Ukraine and the EU will not affect Russian-Ukrainian trade, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule said.
   
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would continue to defend the interests of ethnic Russians abroad after Kyiv renewed military operations against pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine.
   
• (RIA Novosti) A Kremlin spokesman said that Russia is not a party to the conflict in the east of Ukraine and its influence on self-defense forces should not be overestimated.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Moscow urged the Ukrainian authorities to stop shelling their own cities and communities and to restore genuine, and not ostensible ceasefire to save people’s lives.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Moscow advocated an urgent meeting of the contact group on settling the crisis in Ukraine and said it would render any assistance necessary to the negotiation process.
   
• Putin said that he and European Union states had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Kyiv to extend a ceasefire in east Ukraine, and the Ukrainian president had veered off the road to peace.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian President Putin said that Russia will not wind down its relations with the United States. "We do not intend to end our relations with the US, though it is true that our bilateral relations are not at the best stage now," he stated. "However, it is so not because of us, it is not Russia's fault."
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Putin alleged that Ukraine is actively targeting and eliminating Russian journalists in the country.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian President Vladimir Putin said that there is no such thing as reverse traffic of gas from Western Europe to Ukraine, nor can such a possibility emerge in the future. Kyiv appears to have plotted some shady schemes with some of its partners, Putin claimed.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Putin told a meeting of Russia’s ambassadors and permanent representatives that Russia could not afford to let NATO troops arrive in Sevastopol to radically change the balance of force in the Black Sea basin. He stated that Russia had no right to leave the people of Sevastopol and Crimea in the crisis situation.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Putin said Russia is not interested in formats of international contacts where it has the role of an outside observer.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Eurasian Economic Union is open to CIS countries that have not joined it yet, Putin said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s ambassador to China stated that Russia appreciates China’s understanding on the Ukraine situation.
   
• The so-called Baku Group for Ukraine was set up at the 23rd session of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
   

Governance News

• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s political coalition called on President Petro Poroshenko to submit an act to the parliament to introduce martial law in the country’s east.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Six MPs left the faction of the Communist Party in Ukraine's parliament.
   

--

More Stories 

Writing for New Europe, EWI's Professorial Fellow Greg Austin argues that the creation of the Eurasian Union—a union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan—will test relations with the EU. Read more 

There were clear warning signs to the Ukraine crisis, says Greg Austin. "If we want to get that future plan right, we do need to have some understanding of what went wrong." Read more 

Greg Austin writes "The Luhansk Border: A New Crisis Point," for New Europe. Read more 

EWI’s Danila Bochkarev busts some prevailing myths and explains why the Ukraine crisis is a political earthquake and not an energy quake. Read more 

Bochkarev says the recent China-Russia gas deal is more practical than political. Read more 

Internal Security News

• (Interfax Ukraine) The truce in the east of Ukraine remained under strain as it was set to expire in the evening of June 30. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko prolonged a truce in the east of Ukraine until 2200 Kyiv time on June 30 in keeping with a decision by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).
   
• Five Ukrainian army servicemen died and at least 17 were injured in a 24-hour period from June 29-30.
   
• A military base in Donetsk came under the command of the militants in the self-declared 'Donetsk People's Republic' on Sunday, June 29.
   
• A Russian state TV cameraman was also shot dead while reporting in Donetsk overnight on June 29. Russia's Channel One TV said that Anatoly Klyan, 68, was fatally wounded in the stomach when shots were fired by Ukrainian troops near a military base. He was reporting on pro-Russian separatists in the area. He was the third Russian TV journalist to be killed in Ukraine this month.
   
• Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk took over the website of an independent journalist's union, announcing that a separatist-friendly "action group" will create a new trade association in its place.
   

Diplomacy News

• The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France were set to hold more talks to resolve the conflict in east Ukraine. Germany and France urged Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to extend a ceasefire with pro-Russian separatists - due to end on the evening of June 30 - for a second time.
   
• "The death of a Russian journalist again convincingly demonstrates that Ukrainian forces clearly do not want a de-escalation of the conflict in the east of the country," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, following the death of Channel One TV reporter Anatoly Klyan in Donetsk.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian investigators on Monday launched a criminal case over the killing of Russian TV cameraman Anatoly Klyan in Ukraine’s eastern republic of Donetsk.
   
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instructed State Border Guard Service Head Mykola Lytvyn to hold urgent consultations with Russian Border Service officials to negotiate a mechanism of ensuring effective control over the Ukrainian-Russian border.
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian refugees seeking shelter in Russian temporary accommodation centers exceeded 17, 000 people, according to a spokesman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
   
•  (RIA Novosti) The European Council said on June 27 it would give Moscow three days to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, or it will impose new sanctions against Russia.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 27 that Moscow would welcome a longer truce between the warring parties in Ukraine, but warned it should not resemble a “postponement of ultimatum.”
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that imposes prison terms for sponsoring extremism and for inciting extremist activities on the internet.
   

International Observation Missions

• The four members of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission abducted on May 29 in Luhansk were set free by their separatist captors late on June 28 after one month in detention.
   
• Russian President Vladimir Putin held prolonged telephone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and with his French and Ukrainian counterparts Francois Hollande and Petro Poroshenko, during which they discussed a plan to send OSCE inspectors to the Russian-Ukrainian border.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The OSCE announced that it may completely resume the activities of observers’ mission in Ukraine only after the security conditions improve.
   

--

More Stories 

Writing for New Europe, EWI's Professorial Fellow Greg Austin argues that the creation of the Eurasian Union—a union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan—will test relations with the EU. Read more 

There were clear warning signs to the Ukraine crisis, says Greg Austin. "If we want to get that future plan right, we do need to have some understanding of what went wrong." Read more 

Greg Austin writes "The Luhansk Border: A New Crisis Point," for New Europe. Read more 

EWI’s Danila Bochkarev busts some prevailing myths and explains why the Ukraine crisis is a political earthquake and not an energy quake. Read more 

Bochkarev says the recent China-Russia gas deal is more practical than political. Read more 

Internal Security News

• Two European officials said that Ukraine will extend its cease-fire. The government in Kyiv will prolong the week-long truce, which it says has been repeatedly flouted by pro-Russian separatists, by 72 hours from an original plan to end it at 10 p.m. on June 27.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Representatives of the Kyiv authorities and Ukraine’s southeast regions started a second round of consultations in Donetsk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Five Ukrainian law enforcers were killed in attacks on the roadblocks of Ukrainian security forces in the area of ​​the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Declaring a real ceasefire between conflict parties will be the main issue to be discussed during consultations in Donetsk of the contact group on settlement in eastern Ukraine, leader of the Ukrainian Choice public movement Viktor Medvedchuk said.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council confirmed the captivity of the commander of a military unit seized by militants in Donetsk.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Militants belonging to the unrecognized “Donetsk People’s Republic” gained control over a base of the Interior troops located in downtown Donetsk.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov promised a tough reaction from the authorities if members of illegal armed groups do not accept the conditions of a peace plan put forward by President Petro Poroshenko and do not lay down their arms.
   

Diplomacy News

• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a European Union accord rejected by his predecessor that sent the country spiraling into crisis. Along with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova also signed partnership agreements with the European Union, in a move strongly opposed by Russia.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russia’s official news agency, Novosti, on 26 June used the term “Novorossiya” to describe the territory of the newly declared “Union of Novorossiya” in contrast to the territory of Ukraine. Novorossiya, self-declared with a new constitution, is to be a union of the two rebel provinces of Ukraine: Luhansk and Donetsk.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Moscow is seriously preparing for a tripartite consultation on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement to be held in mid-July.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Poroshenko described the Association Agreement as an instrument of preparing Ukraine for its full-fledged membership of the European Union.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) The European Union's summit held in Brussels demanded that hostages be released, border checkpoints vacated and talks in the East of Ukraine started by June 30.
   
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Karasin said that the signing of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement is a sovereign right of Ukraine but this step will have serious implications.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union does not pose any threats to third countries and commodity producers may even benefit from it. Poroshenko said Russia should be interested in this agreement "because Ukraine can be a bridge enabling Russia commodities to enter European markets."
   
• (RIA Novosti) A Russian deputy FM said that Russia expects the forthcoming expert-level consultations and ministerial talks with Ukraine and the EU on Kiev’s association with the bloc will be a step toward reaching common ground.
   
• Russian President Putin said that the ‘anti-constitutional coup’ staged in Ukraine and attempts to artificially impose a choice between Europe and Russia on that country have pushed Ukrainian society toward a split.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) The European Council called on all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to fulfill the peace plan put forward by President Petro Poroshenko regarding the settlement of the situation in the eastern regions.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Germany as Russia’s most important partner in promoting peace and global stability.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s chances of attaining candidate status for membership in the European Union are hard to predict, Stefan Fuele, EU Commissioner for Enlargement said.
   

International Observation Missions

• (ITAR-TASS) Four OSCE observers who had been held hostage in Ukraine were released and were headed for Donetsk.
   

Constitutional Reform

• (RIA Novosti) A list of draft amendments to the Ukrainian constitution proposed by President Petro Poroshenko was lodged with the country’s parliament.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian FM Lavrov said that the Ukrainian government has so far made no practical moves to discuss amendments to the country’s constitution with the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
   

--

More Stories 

Writing for New Europe, EWI's Professorial Fellow Greg Austin argues that the creation of the Eurasian Union—a union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan—will test relations with the EU. Read more 

There were clear warning signs to the Ukraine crisis, says Greg Austin. "If we want to get that future plan right, we do need to have some understanding of what went wrong." Read more 

Greg Austin writes "The Luhansk Border: A New Crisis Point," for New Europe. Read more 

EWI’s Danila Bochkarev busts some prevailing myths and explains why the Ukraine crisis is a political earthquake and not an energy quake. Read more 

Bochkarev says the recent China-Russia gas deal is more practical than political. Read more 

Internal Security News

• (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian forces and separatist militants exchanged fire in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk on the evening of June 25.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) No emergencies or armed clashes were reported in Donetsk on the evening of June 25.
   
• The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that there are reports that some militants ready to lay down their arms in the east of the country have been shot on the orders of the leadership of the illegal armed formations.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian President Poroshenko said that representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics have shown an interest in peace talks.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Poroshenko called upon the clergy to participate in the implementation of the peace plan in the southeast of the country.
   

Diplomacy News

• The UN Security Council once again supported Kyiv's assessment of the events in Ukraine, spokesman of Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Yevhen Perebyinis said.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) A spokeswoman said that Russian upper house lawmakers are seeking a positive Ukrainian response to Russia’s rejecting use of its army in the neighboring state. “We look forward to adequate steps from Ukraine which could settle the situation.”
   
•  (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a phone conversation seeking to ensure the warring parties in Ukraine uphold the ceasefire.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the talks with Russia are aimed at achieving peace in Ukraine, but bilateral relations cannot be normalized unless Crimea is returned.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Russian border guards denied shooting dead Ukrainian militias who wanted to cross into Russia on the Ukrainian-Russian borders.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Russian Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak said that extending the ceasefire and continuing negotiations is the only way to resolve the protracted crisis in Ukraine.
   
• Consultations of the contact group of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE will continue on Friday, June 27, however the site for holding them is unknown as of now, former Ukrainian President and member of the group Leonid Kuchma told reporters.
   
• US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Russia to show "within hours" it is working to disarm separatist militants in eastern Ukraine. He was speaking to reporters in Paris a day before a shaky ceasefire was due to end in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
   
• (RIA Novosti) The Russian Investigative Committee intended to request that a Russian court arrest the head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Arsen Avakov.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukrainian President Poroshenko stated that Ukraine will start implementing the provisions of the Association Agreement with the European Union immediately after its signing scheduled for June 27.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) A US State Department spokeswoman said that the US administration welcomes the decision by the upper house of Russia’s parliament to cancel its resolution of March 1 on the possibility of using Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine.
   
• (ITAR-TASS) Ukraine invited European observers to its gas measuring stations on the borders with Russia and Europe to monitor the transit of gas to the European Union.
   
• (RIA Novosti) Ukraine removed restrictions for Russian citizens crossing the Pletenevka international checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border

International Observation Missions

• (ITAR-TASS) Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister stated that Russia believes the OSCE mission to Ukraine should be raised to 500 observers.

Governance News

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he hopes early elections to the Verkhovna Rada will be held in October.
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Poroshenko proposed changing the political division of the country, which should include regions, districts and "hromadas" (communities).
   
• (Interfax Ukraine) Poroshenko proposed to appoint presidential representatives to constituent territories for the coordination of the activity of territorial branches of the central executive authorities.