This ends our blogging for June 20. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Here is today's map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
U.S. Republican Senators John McCain (Arizona), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), and John Barrasso (Wyoming) speaking at a joint news conference in Kyiv:
McCain: "All over Ukraine we are seeing people rise up doing whatever they can to defend their territorial integrity against [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's naked aggression. We believe it is not only in Ukraine's interest, but all of America's and European interest to see Vladimir Putin's aggression reversed."
"The United States has a tradition of helping those people who are struggling for freedom and against thugs like Vladimir Putin and for us to sit by and watch the dismemberment of an European nation for the first time in 70 years and upsetting the liberal world order which followed the bloody World War II is not only improper, it is disgraceful and shameful."
"This is shameful that we will not provide [Ukrainians] with weapons to defend themselves. They are fighting with 20th-century weapons against Russia's 21st-century weapons. That's not a fair fight."
On Russian propaganda:
"One of the major factors in winning the Cold War without firing a shot was our information capabilities such as Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, it was beamed into the then-Soviet Union. I talked to many afterwards who said it was those programs that helped and inspired them, and stories of people like [late Czech President] Vaclav Havel, and [Soviet dissident] Natan Sharansky, and many others. So, right now there is a very strong and effective propaganda campaign being carried out by Vladimir Putin and it particularly hitting the Baltics, Moldova, some of the Eastern European countries, and we have to develop a counter to that. We have to make sure that the people are told the truth."
Cotton: "I would also say that for the last year and half, the Western leaders have been constructing off ramps after off ramps for Vladimir Putin and he keeps blowing past those off ramps. It is time to stop constructing off ramps and start contracting road blocks."
"As long as Russian troops illegally occupy Crimea and eastern Ukraine, then Europe cannot be whole, free, and secure, and if Europe is not such, then the United States cannot be secure."
Barrasso: "It was also very impressive to be with innovators -- these young creative, energetic, innovative people who have been developing technology including drones that are able to bring documentation of what the Russian [troops] are doing in Ukraine with moving more supplies, tanks into the area [in eastern Ukraine], that is now well documented. Which is an additional reason why we are going to make sure that people of Ukraine receive from the United States defensive weapons and we are continuing to fight in bipartisan way to get that done."
U.S. senators call for arming Ukraine:
By RFE/RL
U.S. Senator John McCain has again called on the United States to send weapons to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
At a press conference in Kyiv on June 20, McCain (Republican-Arizona) said it would be "disgraceful and shameful" for the West not to act as Russian President Vladimir Putin, in McCain's view, sought to dismember Ukraine.
McCain, one of the most vocal supporters in the U.S. Congress on arming Ukraine, said the Ukrainians had "proven they are willing to fight."
Speaking alongside McCain, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (Republican-Arkansas) said Western leaders had offered Putin numerous "off ramps" to deescalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but Putin, according to Cotton, had ignored these chances.
Now, Cotton said, was the time to start building "road blocks, including supplying arms to Ukraine's military.
Ukraine has repeatedly asked for international help to boost its defensive capabilities.
Western countries have so far declined its requests to supply weapons, while offering nonlethal military aid and training.