This ends our live blogging for June 17. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
NATO chief says Russia acting irresponsibly:
NATO's top military commander says that Russia's planned purchase of new missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads is not appropriate for a responsible nuclear power.
"This is not a way that responsible nuclear nations behave," U.S. Air Force General and NATO supreme allied commander Philip Breedlove said.
"A rhetoric which ratchets up tensions in a nuclear sense is not a responsible behavior and we seek and ask that these [nuclear] nations handle this particular type of weapon in a more responsible way," he added.
President Vladimir Putin said on June 16 that Russia would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.
The Russian leader also said he was not particularly worried about a U.S. plan to possibly station heavy weaponry in Eastern Europe.
But on June 17, the Kremlin said Russia did not want to enter a costly new arms race with the West, saying it would hurt the country’s economy.
"We are against any arms race because it naturally weakens our economic capabilities," presidential aide Yury Ushakov said on June 17. "In principle we are against it." (Reuters, AFP)
U.K. calls for Savchenko release, denounces Russian saber-rattling:
Britain has called on Russia to free detained Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko and says it will not be intimidated by President Vladimir Putin's "saber-rattling."
Savchenko, who has become a symbol of resistance in Ukraine to Russian aggression, is being held in Moscow on charges of aiding the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine last year.
She has been weakened by a hunger strike against what she says are politically motivated charges.
British Europe Minister David Lidington told Savchenko in a letter London was pressing Moscow for her release.
"During 12 months of incarceration you have shown immense courage and resilience," he wrote, calling on Russia to live up to its international commitments.
Separately, while visiting Estonia, British Defense Minister Michael Fallon criticized Putin for his plan to add intercontinental ballistic missiles to Russia's nuclear arsenal.
"This is clearly saber-rattling clearly designed to provoke, designed to intimidate. It won't do that," Fallon said. "We are prepared to modernize our defenses and do whatever is necessary to reassure as well as to deter." (Reuters, TASS)
Khodorkovsky says Putin fabricated conflict with West as a distraction:
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has no short-term solution and is part of a fabricated conflict with the West to distract everyday Russians from corruption and incompetence, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky told an audience in Washington on June 17 that no real rapprochement with Russia was possible so long as Putin remained in charge.
Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest man but is now living in exile after spending a decade in jail on what he and his supporters say were charges fabricated because of the political threat he posed to Putin.
U.S.-Russian ties are at their lowest point since the Cold War, and Russia's ruling elite fosters such isolation from the West as a tool to stay in power, Khodorkovsky said in his speech at the Atlantic Council think tank.
"The current confrontation with the West is absolutely artificial," he said, speaking through a translator.
"They desperately need an image of an enemy who would distract the attention of the populace from the corruption and inefficiency that exists."
Khodorkovsky used to own the mammoth Yukos oil company, which once produced as much oil as Qatar but is now defunct. He was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to nine years in jail on tax-fraud and embezzlement charges.
He ended up serving 10 years, and was released in late 2013 right before the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
He now lives in exile in Switzerland and leads a Moscow-based human rights group called Open Russia. It aims to discuss alternatives to Putin's rule and is heavily critical of his policies.
Khodorkovsky said he envisioned a post-Putin, Western-oriented Russia, although he did not discuss how the current government might fall.
The United States and the rest of the West must therefore prepare for some day gradually welcoming Russia into their fold, the dissident aid, and that will mean European Union and NATO membership for their former arch foe.
But for now, he said, Russia's conflict with Ukraine -- its annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian rebels in the east of Ukraine -- is here to stay, suggesting it might last as long as the division of North and South Korea.
"A freezing of the conflict is the only reasonable expectation," Khodorkovsky said.
While the United States has no choice but to remain engaged in Ukraine, he cautioned Washington against giving Kyiv weapons. He said most Russians already believe the conflict there is between Russia and the United States.
"This situation is going to keep on developing in this direction if arms start being shipped to Ukraine," he said.
"Then you have the question whether the United States is ready to step into the conflict and to win, because if it is not ready for that, this will be interpreted as America having lost." (Reuters, AFP)
Ukraine detains two suspects in pro-Russian journalist's killing:
Ukrainian authorities have detained two people suspected of involvement in the murder of journalist Oles Buzyna.
The Kyiv prosecutor's office said on June 18 that both suspects were residents of the capital. It also said they were aged 25 and 26.
The two are facing premeditated murder charges.
Buzyna, 45, was gunned down near his Kyiv apartment block on April 16.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has described Buzyna's daytime slaying by two masked men in a central Kyiv street as a "deliberate provocation."
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Buzyna was killed for political reasons because of his pro-Russian views. (Interfax, Sputnik)
Moscow threatens to extend food import ban if EU extends sanctions:
Russian Economic Development Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev has said Moscow will extend its embargo on European Union agricultural products if the bloc extends sanctions as expected.
Ulyukayev told RIA Novosti news agency on June 18, "We'll just keep the status quo: the embargo on produce introduced in response to the sanctions regime."
Asked if Russia might impose sanctions on other areas of EU imports, he said, "I think it's unlikely."
Last year, Moscow banned most dairy, meat, fish, fruit, and vegetable imports from the EU, the United States, and other countries which had imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its alleged support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
The EU is expected to approve on June 22 a six-month extension of the economic sanctions hitting Russia's energy, financial, and military sector. (AFP, Sputnik)
LATEST: Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to dismiss Security Service chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko. (AFP, Interfax)