Accessibility links

Subscribe
All RFE/RL sites
All RFE/RL websites
site logo site logo
Previous Next
Breaking News
A woman carries a baby as she passes destroyed houses following what locals say was overnight shelling by Ukrainian forces in the eastern town of Slovyansk on June 9.
A woman carries a baby as she passes destroyed houses following what locals say was overnight shelling by Ukrainian forces in the eastern town of Slovyansk on June 9.
Blogs

Live Blog: Crisis In Ukraine (Archive)

Summary for June 9

-- Ukraine's Foreign Ministry says that Moscow and Kyiv have reached a "mutual understanding" on key parts of a plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko for ending violence in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine.

-- Reports say up to 20 armed gunmen were trying to seize property from a factory (Topaz) that makes communications and electronic-warfare equipment in the Donetsk region.

-- A deputy foreign minister says Russia will consider any expansion of NATO forces near its borders a "demonstration of hostile intentions" and "take the necessary political and military-technological measures to support our security."

-- A two-man crew for Russian Zvezda TV arrived in Moscow after being released from detention in Ukraine.

-- Serbian officials say their own work on the Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline will have to be suspended after Bulgaria stopped construction of its portion based on EU and U.S. concerns.

-- Ukrainian security forces are reportedly still battling pro-Russian separatists in the east near Slovyansk and Donetsk.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
08:05 29.5.2014
08:07 29.5.2014
08:13 29.5.2014
RFE/RL's news desk has this update on those missing OSCE observers:
The self-declared separatist "mayor" of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, says four observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who went missing earlier this week are being held by pro-Russian rebels.

The Interfax news agency quotes Ponomaryov as saying the observers, who were last heard from on May 26, are "fine" and were detained because they were "too zealous."

He promised that the team -- which comprises a Dane, a Turk, an Estonian, and a Swiss -- will be freed soon.

In a statement on May 28, OSCE chief Didier Burkhalter slammed the detentions as "acts of sabotage" that "cannot be tolerated."

He called for their "immediate and unconditional release."

A second group of 11 OSCE observers was detained in the same region of Donetsk on May 28, but the OSCE later said it had managed to reestablish contact.

In late April, a team of seven OSCE observers was abducted in eastern Ukraine until eventually being released in early May.
08:16 29.5.2014
09:37 29.5.2014
09:37 29.5.2014
09:55 29.5.2014
With Vladimir Putin in Astana today to ink a customs union deal, Alexey Eremenko from "The Moscow Times" has been taking a timely look at the ramifications of Ukraine's decision to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS):
Even President Vladimir Putin conceded in 2005 that the CIS was only a form of "civilized divorce" for former Soviet states.

The bloc has been politically inactive for years, and its disintegration was sealed by the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, which it did nothing to prevent, said Alexei Malashenko of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Without Ukraine, the CIS is likely to be either mothballed or disbanded altogether, depending on what best suits Russia's interests, Malashenko said.

Read the entire article here
10:04 29.5.2014
In case you missed it yesterday, here is RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service talking to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz about what Washington can do to help provide the Ukrainian people "with the tools and equipment necessary to defend themselves."
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz: 'America Stands With Ukraine'
Embed
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz: 'America Stands With Ukraine'

No media source currently available

0:00 0:01:13 0:00
Direct link
10:07 29.5.2014
10:07 29.5.2014

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG