Ukrainian officials said they had tens of thousands of files of info on the 47 people on the assassination list:
Another report from the RFE/RL news desk:
NATO Ministers Expected To Okay 'Four Thirties' Initiative: Stoltenberg
NATO defense ministers are expected to give the go-ahead for a new U.S. initiative on June 7 that will increase the readiness of the alliance's troops in case of a crisis amid continued concerns about Russian assertiveness in Eastern Europe, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg says.
The meeting in Brussels will take place just five weeks before a full summit of NATO leaders.
"I expect we will also agree on a NATO Readiness Initiative -- the Four Thirties," Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels on June 6.
"NATO’s Readiness Initiative means that allies would, by 2020, have 30 mechanized battalions, 30 air squadrons, and 30 combat vessels ready within 30 days or less." That would amount to around 30,000 troops, 300 aircraft, and at least 30 navy vessels or submarines.
Thousands of NATO troops are already stationed on standby in the Baltic states and Poland as a deterrent, and Stoltenberg stressed that the Four Thirties are about increased coordination and better mobility.
"This is not about setting up or deploying new forces -- it is about boosting the readiness of existing forces across each and every ally," Stoltenberg said.
"This is about establishing a culture of readiness and we need that because we have a more unpredictable security environment, we have to be prepared for the unforeseen," Stoltenberg said.
He also said that NATO is modernizing its command structure and the defense ministers are due to sign off on two new command centers -- one to protect Atlantic shipping lanes, based in Norfolk, on the U.S.'s east coast, and a second one to coordinate personnel movements around Europe, located in the southern German city of Ulm.
Stoltenberg said defense ministers will also discuss more funding for training and equipping Afghan forces.
"We will close the ministerial [meeting] with a meeting on Afghanistan together with our Resolute Support [training and assistance mission] partners. Allies and partners are stepping up with both forces and funding. We have added around 3,000 more trainers to our mission. And we are discussing how to extend funding for the Afghan forces beyond 2020."
With reporting by AFP
From RFE/RL's central newsroom:
The British Foreign Office says it is “deeply concerned” about the welfare of four Ukrainians being held in Russia who are conducting hunger strikes to protest Moscow's detention of Ukrainian political prisoners.
“Their imprisonment, and that of many more Ukrainians who have been jailed by Russia, appears politically motivated,” the Foreign Office said in a statement on June 6.
The statement called for the “immediate release” of Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Oleksandr Shumkov, and Volodymyr Balukh.
The Foreign Office said the men were handed “lengthy jail sentences” for expressing opposition to Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region following trials that “appeared to fall well short of international standards.”
“These cases, including over 70 others against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, underline the Russian Federation's systematic persecution of those who voice their opposition to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea,” the statement said.
“Russia’s control over Crimea remains illegal and illegitimate, and is a flagrant violation of a number of Russia’s international commitments,” it added, referring to Moscow's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker and Crimea native, is serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted on terrorism charges that he and human rights groups say were politically motivated. He started a hunger strike on May 14, demanding the release of 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners.
A global campaign -- called the #SaveOlegSentsov campaign -- has been organized to demand the release of Sentsov, who is being held in the far-northern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region.
Kolchenko, who was convicted at the same time as Sentsov, is serving a 10-year term.
The Memorial Human Rights Center says Shumkov is a political prisoner, adding that “there are strong grounds for believing that [he] was abducted on Ukrainian territory” and taken to Russia when he disappeared in August 2017.
Balukh is a pro-Kyiv activist imprisoned by Russian authorities in Crimea on charges of weapons and explosives possession in a case he says was politically motivated.
In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Moscow to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.