From our News Desk:
Ukraine Open To Hosting Missile-Defense System Parts
The head of Ukraine's National Security Council has said Kyiv is open to placing parts of a missile-defense system on Ukrainian soil to ward off the potential risk of attacks from Russia.
Oleksandr Turchynov told the Ukrinform news agency on May 20: "I do not rule out that to defend ourselves from [Russia's] nuclear threat, we will have to hold consultations on deploying components of a missile-defense system on Ukrainian territory."
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would consider the deployment of such components to Ukraine "a threat to Russia's security."
"This will entail the need for taking retaliatory measures," he added.
Moscow has strongly criticized plans to build a U.S.-led missile shield in Europe, which NATO says is not directed against Russia but rather an attack from a country like Iran.
Based on reporting by AP and TASS
From our News Desk:
Ukraine Charges Suspected Russian Soldiers With 'Terror Activity'
Ukraine says it has charged two suspected Russian soldiers who had been captured in the country's east with involvement in "terrorist activity."
An adviser for the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Markiyan Lubkivsky, wrote on Facebook on May 20 that the two men were also allowed to telephone their relatives in Russia.
Kyiv says it has captured the two men, identified as Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, in the eastern region of Lugansk on May 16.
The men claimed in a video that they were active Russian servicemen, but Moscow said they were no longer employed by the state when they were captured.
Russia has constantly denied accusations by Kyiv and the West that it is providing weapons, training, and personnel to rebels in eastern Ukraine, who are involved in a conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014.
Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Russian Activists: Fresh Graves Of Soldiers Killed In Ukraine Found
By RFE/RL
Russian activists investigating the deaths of three soldiers say their findings indicate that elite army reconnaissance units are operating in Ukraine, adding to evidence of direct Russian involvement in the conflict there, despite repeated Kremlin denials.
The activists say they found fresh graves of soldiers from a special forces brigade of the Russian military's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), which is based in Tambov, a city 400 kilometers south of Moscow.
Their claims came shortly after Ukrainian authorities detained two men they say are GRU soldiers who were wounded in a firefight while on a scouting mission in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014.
Activists Vadim Korovin, who posted pictures of the graves online, told AFP news agency on May 20 that the burials helped show that the Russian military is carrying out "large-scale reconnaissance operations" in eastern Ukraine despite a tenuous cease-fire.
The pictures placed on the Internet on May 19 are of two graves: one near Tambov and one in Tatarstan, a region on the Volga River. The graves show the date of death as May 5, 2015, and both have been adorned with identical wreaths from the Russian Defense Ministry.
A third soldier has been buried in a village in the southern Kurgan region bordering Kazakhstan, the activist said.
Russia denies it has sent troops into Ukraine, claiming that any Russian citizens fighting alongside separatists have gone there independently.
However, Korovin said the graves and information gathered from posts by grieving relatives and friends on social-networking sites indicate that the three men were not volunteers but Russian soldiers who were killed in Ukraine in the same place at the same time while on active duty.
Korovin, who is an assistant to opposition lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, said he spoke by phone with the mother of one of the soldiers, Anton Savelyev, who was at first keen to meet but then changed her mind after a visit to the military base.
On May 19, Russia's Defense Ministry said the two Russians in Ukrainian custody, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, had left the military, but still insisted on their release. On May 20, Ukraine said it had charged them with involvement in "terrorist activity."
A report released last week, based on research begun by Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov before his killing in February, said that more then 200 Russian military personnel have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
With reporting by AFP and tvrain.ru
Russia Says Ukraine Debt Repayment Law Amounts To Default
Russia has demanded that Ukraine repays all debts on time and accused Kyiv of effectively setting the stage for default with a new law.
It threatened to take the issue to international courts if necessary.
The law, approved by Ukraine's parliament on May 19, gives the government the right to miss payments to its international creditors as it negotiates the terms for restructuring $23 billion worth of foreign debt.
Russia holds a $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond whose full repayment is due by the end of the year.
President Vladimir Putin on May 20 told a meeting with government ministers he found the new law "strange."
"To effectively announce an impending default shows a poor level of professional responsibility, all things considered," said Putin, noting that the International Monetary Fund does not lend to countries in default.
Ukraine hopes to secure the next tranche of a $17.5 billion bailout program with the IMF this summer to shore up its foreign currency reserves.
Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax
International Red Cross visits two men detained in eastern Ukraine
GENEVA, May 20 (Reuters) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it had visited two men captured in a part of eastern Ukraine hit by separatist conflict and that they were now in hospital in the capital Kiev.
Ukraine on Monday showed a video online of two prisoners it said were Russian soldiers who had killed Ukrainian soldiers in fighting in its east and said they would be prosecuted for "terrorist acts". Russia denies active military backing for pro-Russian separatist forces in Ukraine.
"A team from the ICRC which included a doctor has this afternoon visited the two men captured near Shchastya in the Lugansk region on 17th May and then transferred to Kiev," ICRC spokeswoman Jennifer Tobias told Reuters. "The aim of the visit was to assess their condition and help them establish and maintain contact with their families."
She declined to comment on the men's identity or status, adding: "We want to see everyone detained in connection with the conflict."
The Ukrainians have seized on the capture of the two men they identified as Russians, both wounded, to support their accusations of direct Russian involvement in the conflict despite a ceasefire signed in February.
Victoria Nuland, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, speaking in Moscow on Monday, welcomed the Kiev government's public statements that the men were being well taken care of and that the ICRC would be allowed access to them.