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.
-- 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
BRUSSELS -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says NATO members must reverse the downward spending trends on defense that threaten the alliance's capabilities over the long term.
Hagel made the comments at a June 4 press conference in Brussels following meetings with fellow defense chiefs from the 28 NATO members.
The push for larger defense budgets among NATO members comes in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea territory, which Hagel called the "most significant direct challenge" to European security since the end of the Cold War.
Hagel noted that the United States has already offered $18 million in nonlethal aid to Ukraine’s security forces and that U.S. President Barack Obama earlier in the day announced an additional $5 million in such assistance that will include body armor and night-vision goggles.
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Hospital employees take cover in the basement during combat between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian troops in the village of Semyonovka, in Donetsk region, on May 26.
Russian officials are vowing to investigate alleged human rights abuses in eastern Ukraine.
Spokesman Vladimir Markin says Russia's Investigative Committee has set up a special unit to probe purported crimes by the Ukrainian military.
Meanwhile, Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry's special representative for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, says alleged abuses should not go unpunished.
"What is happening today [in Ukraine], what we have seen in the recent days in Luhansk, what's going on in and around Slovyansk -- such things should not happen in Europe in the 21st century by definition. They should not," Dolgov says. "We, the international community, have been talking a lot and for a long time about horrors -- so to say -- that were taking place in the Balkans, on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. But what we are seeing today is beating all dark and sad records of the past years, the recent decades."
Much of the West accuses Moscow of being behind the unrest, a charge Russia denies.
Dolgov also says: "What is happening today in eastern Ukraine should not go unpunished, if we say that double standards should be ditched and that all of us -- the entire world -- will contribute to the democratic development of Ukraine, of the Ukrainian state. Then there should be no impunity; then certain steps should be undertaken, including those by western countries, aimed at convincing authorities in Kyiv to first of all end the punitive operation [in the southeast of Ukraine]. We've said it before, are saying it now, and will continue saying it in the future."
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EU President Herman Van Rompuy says the EU will sign the remaining parts of an association agreement with Ukraine by the end of the month.
The trade section, which is the bulk of the treaty, will be signed “as soon as possible” and no later than June 27 -- the final day of a two-day summit of EU heads of state in Brussels -- Van Rompuy said.
The EU and Ukraine signed the political portion of the agreement on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin inked the formal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory.
Van Rompuy's announcement comes hours before G7 leaders are set to arrive at EU headquarters in Brussels for a two-day summit. The Ukraine crisis and Russia’s recent actions will be at the center of discussions, Van Rompuy indicated.
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The RFE/RL Ukrainian Service's Taras Bilka visited a temporary resettlement facility in Zaporizhzhya, where he spoke with foster families from the conflict-torn cities of Slovyansk and Donetsk who were forced to leave their homes and seek shelter in that neighboring region.
Two days after the horrific images of suffering went out and the flames were extinguished from an explosion at an occupied regional administration building in downtown Luhansk, our own Glenn Kates concludes that "Despite Denials, All Evidence For Deadly Explosion Points To Kyiv."
