Excerpt:
Ukrainian political prisoner Yuriy Soloshenko was released from Russia on June 14. He reports that he met and talked to Russian officers in the prison hospital. They readily named the numbers of Russian military units that were sent to fight in Ukraine.
Yuriy Soloshenko stated that these Russian army officers were imprisoned because they disagreed with Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“I was with Russian officers who described what was happening, told me the numbers of military units and the names of the soldiers who were sent to fight in Ukraine. I know for a fact that if not for Russian intervention, we’d be living peacefully and quietly in our country.”
EXCERPT:
The United States will maintain its presence in the Black Sea despite a Russian warning that a U.S. destroyer patrolling there undermined regional security, Reuters reports.
The U.S.S. Porter entered the Black Sea this month, drawing heavy criticism from Moscow. Turkey and Romania are expected to push for a bigger NATO presence in the Black Sea at the NATO summit in Warsaw next month.
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
Before we go, here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
