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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.
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.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

We have moved the Ukraine Crisis Live Blog. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please find it HERE.

11:53 16.6.2014
Judy Dempsey from the Carnegie Europe think tank has been warning against complacency as the Ukraine crisis seems to be slowly sliding off the news radar:
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and François Hollande, the French president, spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 14 asking him to control better Russia’s borders with Ukraine. But so far, every one of Merkel’s attempts to persuade Putin to stop Russia’s support for militia groups in Eastern Ukraine has failed.

Russia continues to deny it is arming rebels in the East of Ukraine. Instead, Putin has called on the Ukrainian government to stop its military operations. Yet Kiev is simply attempting to regain control of its territory while also trying to establish some dialogue with Moscow to end the crisis.

In this situation, doing nothing is not an option for Europe or America. The longer European governments hesitate, the more Ukraine is threatened by civil war. Its citizens will flee the conflict, and the growing humanitarian crisis in the East of the country will increase.

There may also be spillover into other parts of Eastern Europe. Just consider the political instability in Moldova and Russia’s meddling in Transnistria, not to speak of the lingering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Read the entire article here.
11:56 16.6.2014
12:27 16.6.2014
RFE/RL's news desk has some more details on Moscow's disquiet over the violent demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Kyiv on Saturday:
Russia's Foreign Ministry has sent a note of protest to Ukraine demanding that those responsible for the attempted storming of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv be caught and punished.

The June 15 note criticized Kyiv authorities for not preventing demonstrators from tearing down the Russian flag, throwing stones and eggs at the embassy building, and damaging several vehicles parked nearby.

Protesters, according to some accounts several hundred of them, gathered outside the Russian Embassy on June 14 after news broke that pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine had shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane, killing 49 people aboard.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the protesters "wanted to see blood."

The Kyiv police department said on June 15 that three people had been taken into custody in connection with the disturbances at the Russian Embassy.
12:39 16.6.2014
12:51 16.6.2014
Some more developments in eastern Ukraine (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Pro-Russian rebels have seized the Ukrainian government's central bank building in separatist-controlled Donetsk.

A representative of the rebels, Oleksandr Matyushyn, said today that separatists had entered discussions with local administrators about transferring control over the local treasury and tax collection service to the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic."

"We want the tax revenues to stay here instead of going to Kyiv," Matyushyn said.

Andrei Purgin, first deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed entity, told the media, "It's not a forced seizure. It's a planned dialogue."

Separatist gunmen stood guard at the bank's main entrance while bank staff filed out of the building.

The Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared independence from Kyiv in disputed May 11 referendums whose legitimacy was rejected by Kyiv and decried as a sham by the West.
13:09 16.6.2014
Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey (left) with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at a previous meeting in Moscow in April
Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey (left) with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at a previous meeting in Moscow in April

Belarus's foreign minister emerged from meetings with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov saying all the right things, unsurprisingly. Here's ITAR-TASS:
Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has condemned the attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev.

Ukraine should fulfil international obligations for ensuring security of diplomatic missions, Makei said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Monday.

"It is clear that such provocations should be denounced," he said.

Makei named the actions and statements by Ukrainian parliament-appointed Foreign Minister Andrei Deshchitsa to the Russian leaders as humiliating.

"As foreign ministers we should bring people closer and not to separate them. Such humiliating statements towards the leadership of other state are absolutely unacceptable," he said.

"The Belarusian president has been insulted by journalists and irresponsible politicians. But it's another matter that such statements are made by the top diplomat of the country," Makei said.
13:25 16.6.2014
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy (file photo)
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy (file photo)

The head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Parubiy, says the council estimates there are 15,000-20,000 "armed terrorists" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, segodnya.ua reports.

"More than half of them come from Russia," Parubiy said, "and there are Chechens and Russian special forces."

Parubiy was speaking at a press conference today, where he also accused fighters of forcibly mobilizing locals into their ranks.
13:50 16.6.2014
13:58 16.6.2014
13:59 16.6.2014

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