Ukrainian servicemen ride in a tank close to the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk, a facility which has been the site of intense fighting for several weeks.
That concludes our live blogging for Saturday, June 14. For continuing coverage of events in Ukraine and throughout our broadcast region, go HERE.
07:1215.6.2014
Russian media reports suggest gas talks with Ukraine have collapsed. From our newsroom this morning:
Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for Russia’s Gazprom, says talks in Kyiv about its gas dispute with Ukraine ended early on June 15 without any breakthrough.
Kupriyanov said a new date for talks has not been set.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said negotiations would continue on June 15 in a bid to resolve the dispute over Russia’s gas price.
Moscow is threatening to cut supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv does not pay $1.95 billion by June 16.
The move would cut deliveries passing through Ukraine to the European Union – which was represented in the talks by European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger.
Ukraine has offered to pay debts to Gazprom if Moscow agrees to charge $326 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas for 18 months.
Russia says its "final price" is $385 per 1,000 cubic meters.
07:2715.6.2014
President Petro Poroshenko issued a video address mourning the troops lost in the Luhansk aircraft downing and the tragedy in Mariupol, vowing there would be an "adequate response" to the "terrorists" responsible. He also stressed national unity, military wherewithal, and his desire to hammer out a peace plan. (Sorry, the embed is not available.)
07:3715.6.2014
Russian media quote acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia suggesting diplomatic ties with Moscow could be suspended if "Russia continues this way." But it's important to note that he was speaking to an angry crowd and that the actual thrust of his remarks appear to lie in the importance of maintaining diplomatic relations. Here's the Interfax report:
Ukraine could sever diplomatic relations with Russia if the situation deteriorates, said Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia.
"If Russia continues this way we will have to sever [diplomatic relations] with it. However, severance of diplomatic relations would be the last point in relations with Russia. We must find all necessary mechanisms [to settle the situation]," he told an audience near the Russian embassy in Kyiv.
"If we sever diplomatic relations we will not be able to tackle problems of those people who are now in Russia," he said.
07:3815.6.2014
Again with the "fascists."
MOSCOW. June 15 (Interfax) - Russia is deeply outraged by fascist assailants' provocations against the Russian embassy in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
"With the Ukrainian authorities' irresponsible connivance assailants attacked the Russian embassy building and desecrated the Russian flag," the statement says.
07:4415.6.2014
Here are some images from the unrest outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, where the protest turned ugly when a Molotov cocktail was thrown and struck an exterior wall of the building. Some windows were also broken, sparking angry responses from Moscow.
A fireman extinguishes the flames from a Molotov cocktail thrown into the embassy complex.
A protester ties his shoelaces on an overturned car.
A protester holds a sign reading "Russia is a killer."
07:5115.6.2014
07:5315.6.2014
Pro-Kyiv military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk says via Facebook that the Luhansk airport was attacked twice overnight, including with a grenade launcher, but that Ukrainian forces returned fire and did not sustain casualties.
The evidence shown comes from Nato military sources and is not necessarily conclusive. But, despite Russian denials, it is strongly suggestive of the narrative that Nato is setting out.
It should be noted that Russian spokesmen have denied a number of things in regard to operations in Ukraine which have turned out to be untrue.
A senior Nato officer told the BBC, that the images "raise significant questions concerning Russia's role in facilitating instability in eastern Ukraine".
