US/NATO/EU and the desperate subversion of Ukraine

[John Dolva]

DONETSK, May 30/ /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s military use ammunition banned by international conventions, Alexander Borodai, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, told reporters on Thursday.

“Explosive bullets are fired and all the banned ammunition are used by the other side,” Borodai said, adding that “mercenaries are fighting for the Ukrainian armed forces and they employ all possible dirty methods.”

DPR units are planning to recapture Donetsk’s Prokofiev international airport that is currently controlled by Ukraine’s military, Borodai said.

“At a definite moment, there will be a counter-attack if they don’t leave the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” he said.

Leaders of the republic have the information that aircraft carrying new units of the Ukrainian army, the National Guard and militants of the ultranationalist Right Sector movement land at the airport almost every day.

“The enemy is concentrating large forces and although we know how many of them are in the area, I wouldn’t like to disclose the figures at the news conference,” he said.

Commanders of both sides remain on friendly terms. “They used to serve in the army, were at school together, some are still friends and quite naturally they do not want to shoot at each other,” Borodai said. “The talks are under way.”

At least 60 self-defence fighters and also 20 civilians were killed as a result of combat operations. There are snipers in the airport area, he said.

“Civilians are dying every day and no-one can provide the exact death toll figures as the access to the airport is strictly forbidden at the moment,” Borodai said. “We are unable to carry all the bodies out of there and to say exactly how many people were killed.”

Meanwhile, Borodai refuted the reports that the curfew had been imposed in the newly formed republic.

“We’ve imposed martial law but not curfew,” he said pointing to lack of necessity for imposing curfew.

Earlier, Itar-Tass learnt at the Russian Armed Forces General Staff that about 300 Ukrainian mercenaries fighting for opposition against President Bashar Assad in Syria take part in the punitive operation of the Ukrainian military in Ukraine's southeast. The source said they joined Right Sector battalions.

[John Dolva]

07:58 GMT:

The military operation in eastern Ukraine will continue until the region “can live and function normally and the people are calm,” acting Defense Minister Mikhail Koval stated on Friday. [defense minister (newspeak for junta terror operative) reveals himself to be an idiot]

______

[non-ukraine / related]

07:44 GMT:

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained four members of the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) nationalist group who were planning terrorist operations in Crimea, the FSB press service said. The militants were planning to target the cities of Yalta, Simferopol and Sevastopol on the peninsula. During the search of the detained, the FSB forces found ammunition, explosives and weapons.

06:40 GMT:

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested a four-member cell of the Right Sector nationalist movement, which was preparing terrorist acts in Crimea, the FSB said in a statement.

The members of the cell planned to set fire to offices of local pro-Russian organizations in Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, in mid-April and then to use IEDs to damage a World War II memorial and a Vladimir Lenin monument on the eve of Victory Day on May 9, the FSB stated.

The four activists will be charged with terrorism and illegal possession of firearms and explosives, the statement said.

[John Dolva]

Children’s hospital comes under artillery gun fire in east Ukraine overnight

MOSCOW, May 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is obliged to extend vast humanitarian, legal, political and diplomatic assistance to Ukraine’s restive Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, polled experts say. Moscow has already declared its intention to provide humanitarian assistance to the surviving victims of violence in Ukraine’s Southeast.

Russia will certainly extend humanitarian assistance to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Russian presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

“Humanitarian aid will certainly be provided, but I cannot say anything about military assistance. You should go and ask the military about that. Humanitarian assistance will certainly be provided,” Peskov said on the Russian News Service radio.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday addressed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry with a special note on the subject. It urged measures to ensure the prompt delivery of humanitarian supplies and medicines to the conflict zone in the southeast only to hear refusal and accusations of a propaganda attempt.

In the meantime, a campaign is underway in Moscow to collect humanitarian aide for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“Nobody will be able to prohibit Russian citizens from helping the two republics in the Donbass coalfields,” says the director of the Donetsk-based Center for Political Analysis and Technologies, Sergey Baryshnikov. The situation is reminiscent of Spain in the 1930's, he remarks.

Baryshnikov believes that first and foremost Donbass needs political and diplomatic support, statements by top officials and parliamentary structures.

“We must issue clear signals that may provide a security umbrella protecting our nascent statehood,” he told the ITAR-TASS political analysis center.

The director of the Stolypin and Struve Centre for Liberal-Conservative Politics, Aleksandr Kazakov, believes that Russia should create a coalition against genocide in Ukraine.

“It is essential to unite countries that do not like what is happening. This coalition should start working within all international agencies and pose problems to our opponents,” Kazakov said.

The head of the Historical Memory foundation, Aleksandr Dyukov, believes it is necessary to promote the activity of human rights organizations in Ukraine’s Southeast.

“At least it is necessary to establish a monitoring network to keep an eye on the situation at a time when the Ukrainian press has turned into propaganda machinery,” he said.

Dyukov said it will be crucial to provide legal support for all those who have suffered from the “death squads” and arbitrary actions by the SBU security service.

[John Dolva]

Kiev's bloody eastern Ukraine campaign LIVE UPDATES

Published time: April 15, 2014 14:19

Edited time: May 29, 2014 09:32

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A Ukrainian helicopter Mi-24 gunship fires its cannons against anti-government forces at the main terminal building of Donetsk international airport May 26, 2014. (Reuters / Yannis Behrakis)

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Air Force, Arms, Army, Breakaway regions, Clashes, Conflict, Human rights, Military, Opposition, Politics, Protest, Shooting, Ukraine, Vehicles, Violence

Kiev has pledged to continue what it calls an “anti-terrorist” operation in eastern Ukraine after the presidential election. Unrest in the region has already resulted in dozens of deaths as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk regions proclaiming independence.

Friday, May 30

22:55 GMT:

Kiev’s military is continuing the shelling of Slavyansk, with some civilian casualties being reported, RIA Novosti cited the self-defense office as saying.

21:55 GMT:

Kiev’s forces briefly fired shells in downtown Slavyansk, the press secretary for self-proclaimed people’s mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev, Stella Horosheva, told Itar-Tass. She explained that shelling is a daily occurrence, which often repeats first in the morning and then in the evening. Horosheva added that she does not have information about the injured or damages caused by the assaults.

21:08 GMT:

Ukraine’s state border patrol reported that a checkpoint between Ukraine and Russia located in the town of Dyakovo, Lugansk region was attacked by around 80 unidentified men. Troops said the post was shot at and attacked with grenade launchers. The men arrived in trucks and Ukrainian forces called for air support.

19:57 GMT:

Shooting has reportedly resumed in Slavyansk, VGTRK television reports, citing its correspondent in the region, who does not rule out that an airstrike will possibly follow soon. People are said to be taking shelter in basements.

19:23 GMT:

Violations of freedom of the mass media continue in Ukraine, where journalists are being detained, TV channels are being blocked, and entry into the country is being denied to reporters, Dunya Miyatovich, OSCE representative on freedom of the media, said.

"Several journalists came under mortar fire in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Slavyansk. Among them are journalists of Russia's VGTRK, World 24, LifeNews TV, and the Belarusian channel BelSat TV. On May 27, unknown people set the building of Ishmael Companion newspaper on fire in the Odessa region,” Miyatovich said. “Unfortunately, denying entrance to journalists continues even after media representatives received official accreditations.”

18:17 GMT:

Ammunition was seen still lying on the ground after fighting in Aleksandrovka, Lugansk region, on Thursday.

18:09 GMT:

The UN will publish its next human rights report on June 17. The paper will highlight the Odessa Trade Unions House fire, in which 48 anti-Kiev protestors died on May 2, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during a briefing. The deadly fire in Odessa will also be the subject of another report that will be presented by Ivan Shimonovich, assistant to the UN's secretary general, at the end of June. Dujarric stressed that the UN is staying in contact with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) because “if a chemical weapon was used, this is the main business for OPCW.”

17:32 GMT:

Self-defense forces of Lugansk are not responsible for the disappearance of OSCE observers on May 29, RIA Novosti quoted the press head for the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Lugansk, Vladimir Inogorodskih, as saying.

16:22 GMT:

Thirteen traffic police officers were fired for refusing to be temporarily transferred to the eastern regions, Ukraine’s acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said on his Facebook page.

15:10 GMT:

A criminal case, on the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by the Ukrainian military, has been opened by Russia’s Investigative Committee.

The proceedings have been launched against as “yet unidentified servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as members of the National Guard and Right Sector movement with regard to the shelling of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Donetsk, Mariupol and other settlements in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Committee, told ITAR-TASS news agency.

Markin says the investigation believes Kiev violated the convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, signed in Geneva in 1949, by intentionally using weapons, artillery and aviation to kill civilians.

13:49 GMT:

Russia has withdrawn the bulk of its troops from the Ukrainian border, though seven battalions, numbering in the thousands, remain in position, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday.

"The majority have gone," Reuters cites him as telling reporters on the eve of a security conference in Singapore. "But seven battalions remain." The official said he had no figure for the number of troops that had withdrawn. "But ... thousands still remain," he said.

Hagel called the withdrawal a promising sign, but said all troops positioned near the Ukrainian border earlier this year need to be pulled back.

13:48 GMT:

The Interior Ministry of Ukraine has asked the self-declared People’s Republic of Lugansk to enter into negotiations, “the people’s governor” Valery Bolotov said on Friday, Ria Novosti reports. Bolotov replied he was only prepared to enter talks on condition that all Ukrainian military forces leave the Luhansk region. He added that in the event of talks, a third party should be invited to the negotiating table.

“Most likely, it will be Russia,” he said.

13:21 GMT:

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry claims it did not propose talks to the self-defense forces of Lugansk, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page.

13:17 GMT:

#saveDonbassChildren pic.twitter.com/mK4iXZ5mWk

— Bystrova Natali (@BystrovaNatali) May 30, 2014

13:10 GMT:

Seven children were hurt as the Ukrainian military shelled the city of Slavyansk, a stronghold of the protesters, in the country’s South East on Friday night, Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, said.

10:42 GMT:

One more group of members of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) has been detained in the city of Severodonetsk, 100km from Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE mission reports on its Facebook page. The group, which included 4 international members plus an interpreter, was stopped by armed personnel, says OSCE. Contact was lost with the group on Thursday.

The OSCE said that it still has no contact with the previous team in Donetsk, another eastern city in the Donetsk region. The last news from the group, which also included four international observers, was on Monday.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Donetsk’s self-appointed mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, said that anti-government militias in Slavyansk are holding the four observers in Donetsk.

He added that the observers are fine and will be released soon after the protesters sort out who they are and why they arrived in Donetsk. He implied that the OSCE people could have been gathering intelligence on the militia.

[John Dolva]

Ukrainian Army Using Prohibited Weapons

Kiev, May 30 (Prensa Latina) Regular Ukrainian army forces are using large caliber weapons prohibited by international conventions, in massive bombardments against residencial areas in the southeastern part of the country, charged a local popular leader today in the region of Donetsk.

Alexander Borodai, named prime minister of the recently proclaimed Peopleâ�Ös Republic of Donetsk, said at a press conference that the Army was using explosive projectiles prohibited by international agreements as part of its repressive operation, particularly against civilians.

The Ukrainian armed forces are using mercenaries, and resorting to dirty methods, he said.

The army units have mostly been made up of combatants from the fascist Right Sector and armed Ukrainians who joined the gangs for hire that made up part of the radical Syrian opposition.

He assured that the militias and the united forces in Donbass are planning shortly to recover the international airport at Donetsk, seized this week by regular units sent from Kiev, after fierce clashes in recent days which killed nearly 60 local militia members and left 200 civilian casualties.

According to Borodai, National Guard and Right Sector troops arrived through the airport, in order to begin their punishment operation against the rebellious regions, the active phase of which was initiated by Kiev in mid-April.

He also denounced the daily murder of scores of civilians at the hands of snipers located near the airport. "It is very difficult to provide an exact number of fatalities, as it is impossible to access those zones," he said.

The headquarters in Lugansk of the popular militias confirmed that battles continued since last night in the area of Alexandrovsk, and that one military unit had been taken.

According to reports, no-one was killed in the clashes, while the self-defense forces managed to capture around 20 Ukrainian officers and soldiers.

Meeting with the press, the leader of the Peopleâ�Ös Republic of Lugansk, Valeri Bolotov, said that unlike the units from Kiev, "we donâ�Öt shoot people in the back, nor do we humiliate prisoners, nor do we bury them in holes, naked and starving."

"Weâ�Öre not savages, sadists or monsters," Bolotov stressed, "as opposed to those who are sending soldiers who are practically children to this fratricidal war, forcing them to shoot not only at our combatants but also at peaceful civilians."

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army continued its massive bombings today of the people in Slavyansk, in the northern part of the Donetsk region, as confirmed by televised reports.

According to the militias and witnesses among the people, the cannon and automatic weapons fire has been most severe in the eastern part of the country, close to this city.

Preliminary reports from Russian televisionâ�Ös Channel One claim that more than 20 civilians have been killed and around 30 wounded.

sc/sa/tgj/oda Modificado el ( viernes, 30 de mayo de 2014 )

[John Dolva]

Saturday, May 31

03:19 GMT:

Fighting is being reported around Donetsk, with gunfire and explosions being heard in different parts of the city, Russia 24 TV channel reported.

There are also reports of a new standoff at the city’s international airport.

02:40 GMT:

An Orthodox priest was released after being detained by the Ukrainian military near Lugansk, according to Russia 1 TV channel. Priest Vladimir Maretsky claimed he was tortured after he said that he supports the self-defense forces.

“I was stopped by the troops, they forced me on the ground, began beating me, they put sacks over my head and drove me to their base, where they continued to beat me,” he said.

Maretsky was detained a week ago.

00:35 GMT:

German OSCE special negotiator on maintaining dialogue in Ukraine, Wolfgang Ischinger, is leaving his post, Kommersant newspaper reported, quoting OSCE spokesman Ronald Bless. Bless added that Ischinger’s mandate ran out on May 25 and he was unable to renew it due to his busy schedule. His successor has not yet been appointed.

[John Dolva]

Saturday, May 31

12:49 GMT:

Intense fighting is being reported in different parts of Slavyansk with Kiev’s army using helicopters, RIA Novosti says citing a local self-defense unit. “There are 7-10 helicopters, mostly MI-8s, hovering over the area,” the unit said, adding that “they fire from time to time.” Shooting was reported near Kramatorsk airfield, where the news agency was informed of at least two fatalities among civilians, including a 40-year old woman.

12:19 GMT:

The Donetsk authorities have advised residents against approaching the city’s airport as it poses a threat to their lives due to frequent gunfights between self-defense forces and Ukrainian troops.

“Warning! One should by no means approach the area surrounding the airport! The Donetsk department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry asks residents to strictly limit their presence near the Donetsk airport and the METRO store. Every day shots are heard in the area. There are reports of wounded and dead among the civilian population,” the statement on Donetsk City Council’s website said.

11:56 GMT:

Russia says it will not support an offer from the German OSCE special envoy, Wolfgang Ischinger, to withdraw its monitoring mission from Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, stressing that given the situation in eastern Ukraine it is now necessary “to stir up the work of international observers.”

11:55 GMT:

Moscow has expressed outrage over calls by German OSCE special envoy, Wolfgang Ischinger, to “intensify the anti-terrorist operation” in southeastern Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We are surprised by the latest statement on Ukraine by the German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, who is quite respected in Russia...” the Ministry stated. “The calls to ‘intensify the anti-terrorist operation’ in the South East are simply outrageous. We often hear such messages, but mainly from Kiev and Washington," the ministry added.

07:40 GMT:

The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has got in touch with its group of observers, which earlier went missing in the Lugansk region, BBC reported. The four observers from Turkey, Denmark, Estonia and Switzerland said they are safe and are being treated well by the anti-government militia who detained them

The militia earlier said they are holding the foreigners because they had ‘suspicious equipment’ and could have been gathering intelligence for the Ukrainian troops.

Similar suspicions were voiced towards a group of foreign military observers, who were detained in Slavyansk in the Donetsk region. The officers were released unharmed in early May.

[John Dolva]

21:58 GMT:

As of June 1, the ruble has officially become the only official currency in Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on May 27 reducing the time of transition from the hryvnia to the ruble. The Ukrainian hryvnia received the status of foreign currency.

21:07 GMT:

Two people have been killed in Slavyansk, where around 10 helicopters have encircled the city and are shelling the area with machine guns, Russia 24 cited local self-defense forces as saying. The helicopters also destroyed a self-propelled gun used by the self-defense fighters. Fighting in Slavyansk resumed on Saturday evening.

19:20 GMT:

Residents in Slavyansk, southeastern Ukraine were forced to hide in bomb shelters after Kiev's forces shelled the besieged town on Saturday night.

16:17 GMT:

Some members of the #Slavyansk self-defence. The 'pro-Ukrainians' want you to think they are shelling their own homes pic.twitter.com/fbgeA7VcMr

— GrahamWPhillips (@GrahamWP_UK) May 31, 2014

16:06 GMT:

Ukraine introduced an embargo on military goods deliveries to Russia in March and Moscow cannot even receive the goods that have been already paid for, said the deputy head of Russia’s Defense Ministry, Yury Borisov.

"In March, Ukraine issued regulations that prohibit the supply of arms, military equipment and [separate] components for Russian defense enterprises. Those goods have already accumulated at the customs service. In most cases the goods, which we cannot get, have already been prepaid 100 percent or 80 percent," he said in an interview with Russian News Service Radio.

14:00 GMT:

Over the past three months, the US has doubled the size of its financial military aid to Ukraine and is going to further increase it, US Ambassador to Ukraine Jeffrey Payet said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

“Particular emphasis is placed on the improvement of combat readiness of the Ukrainian border guards and their ability to defend the borders of [their] country,” Payet said.

He has confirmed that a Pentagon delegation is expected in Kiev next week to discuss US support in the defense sphere.

12:49 GMT:

Intense fighting is being reported in different parts of Slavyansk with Kiev’s army using helicopters, RIA Novosti says citing a local self-defense unit. “There are 7-10 helicopters, mostly MI-8s, hovering over the area,” the unit said, adding that “they fire from time to time.” Shooting was reported near Kramatorsk airfield, where the news agency was informed of at least two fatalities among civilians, including a 40-year old woman.

[John Dolva]

Ukrainian Forces Resume Attacks, Bombings

Kiev, May 31 (Prensa Latina) Ukrainian forces resumed bombings today in the outskirts of the administrative city of Donetsk, in the country´s southeastern region, with heavy artillery and harassment of the National Guard squads.

[John Dolva]

RT :

A bus carrying women and children from Slavyansk, including toddlers, was stopped at a border checkpoint by Ukrainian guards. The refugees managed to cross into Russia on foot and find new transport.

The incident happened on Friday night at a border crossing between Ukraine’s Donetsk region and Russia’s Rostov region. The bus was carrying people from Slavyansk, the city that has become the scene of constant battles between local militia and troops loyal to Kiev.

There were 38 refugees on board, including 21 children aged between 2 months and 12 years, and 17 women, Rostov region spokesman Aleksandr Titov told Itar-Tass. As the vehicle was seized, they went across the border on foot with the help of Russian border guards.

“They managed to go through, everyone is alive and well,” the Russian official said.

Local authorities housed the Ukrainians in a border city for the night and provided two buses for transportation.

Meanwhile a group of some 200 children from Slavyansk have been evacuated to Russia’s Crimea. The children, aged between 8 and 16, are being housed in various summer camps on the peninsula.

Their journey was not entirely trouble free either. On Friday, there were reports that buses carrying the evacuated children were not allowed to cross the border by Ukrainian guards and had to turn back. But now all of them are safe in Russia.

RT spoke to some of the kids, who will spend at least a month in Crimea, about how they feel after leaving their home city that has become a battlefield.

RIA Novosti / Andrey Iglov

“The city often comes under mortar shelling. People get hurt as a result. A mortar shell splinter the size of a walnut hit my grandpa’s leg and pierced the bone. If it went a little deeper, it could hit an artery, and that would be it for him,” one of the evacuees, Vladislav, said.

“It’s so unusually calm and quiet here compared to Slavyansk. No explosions going off. It was scary. Nobody expected that things like that could start in our city, which was never famous for anything,” another one, Maria, said.

“I was very scared. There were explosions. My dad just celebrated his birthday and he was woken by the sound of shelling on that day. I’m very glad I’m here now. It’s calm here,” said Darya, a girl in her early teens.

“What was frightening is when a shell flew by your window or you heard shots fired nearby. That’s what frightening,” said a boy called Artyom.

While Kiev’s troops say they are not targeting civilians in their onslaught on the militias, artillery fire regularly hits residential areas in Slavyansk. On Friday morning, several shells hit a children’s policlinic and a hospital in the city. Earlier in the week a kindergarten and a school were damaged.

[John Dolva]

10:13 GMT:

Evacuees from Slavyansk arrived in Sevastopol on Saturday after fleeing with their children searching for safety in the midst of armed conflict in Ukraine.

Some of the families are accommodating themselves in a boarding school located in the city. The refugees are planning to stay at the Crimean Peninsula until the conflict resolves in their hometown.

09:13 GMT:

The anti-government protesters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk have exchanged their three members for a Kiev supporter, press secretary of one of the co-chairmen of the People’s Republic of Donetsk told Itar-Tass. The protesters were held by Ukraine’s security service, she added.

[John Dolva]

Sunday, June 1

23:13 GMT:

Ukraine’s military operation in the east of the country could last up to one year, Semen Semenchenko – commander of Kiev's military unit 'Donbass,' which was created by the Right Sector – told Ukrainskaya Pravda. In order for the military action to be over in one month, a lot of effort would have to be applied and the new president would have to reform the police and improve the army’s supplies, he added.

18:52 GMT:

Residents of the city of Mariupol in the southeast of Ukraine elected a new "people's mayor" on Sunday. Activists supporting the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk gathered at a rally near the burnt City Council building and voted for the resignation of the current mayor, Yury Khotlubey, in favour of Aleksandr Fomenko, ex-utility head. The next official mayoral elections are scheduled for September.

17:34 GMT:

On Sunday a rally in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk demanded that children be protected from Kiev’s assault, with posters reading "Save Donbass kids from the Ukrainian army!"

Собравшиеся на митинг в Донецке требуют защитить детей Донбасса от украинской армии pic.twitter.com/PbgEvLjC09

— Донецкая Республика (@dnrpress) June 1, 2014

15:09 GMT:

Five civilians were injured following artillery shelling in Slavyansk, Itar-Tass reports, citing a representative from armed separatists battling against government forces in the region. The representative said the artillery shells originated from Karachun Mountain, where Ukrainian troops and national guardsmen are currently positioned. He said the wounded had been transported to the district hospital in Nikolaevka, located some 18 kilometers from Slavyansk. Both civilians and separatists fighters were being injured on a daily basis in the city, he added.

14:58 GMT:

A special mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is in talks with a number of groups in southeastern Ukraine to release two of its teams that have been detained there for days.

"We're engaged in dialogue on a wide number of levels… we're in a good position, we feel, to get our colleagues back to base," said Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman of the special mission, cited by Reuters.

According to the spokesman, the detained OSCE observers “are in good shape, they haven't been harmed."

14:10 GMT:

A rally condemning Kiev’s military operation in southeastern Ukraine took place in the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, reports the ITAR-TASS news agency.

The action united immigrants from southeastern regions of Ukraine, Russian citizens and Cypriots.

The demonstrators condemn the US and EU for supporting “neo-fascist and nationalist” forces and called for an independent investigation of the crimes committed in Kiev, Odessa and Mariupol.

11:58 GMT:

#Slavyansk:Residents reportedly not allowed to leave the city. Cars & buses w/ civilians r sent back at the roadblock of the Ukr army.

— PaulaSlier_RT (@PaulaSlier_RT) June 1, 2014

11:04 GMT:

OSCE still can’t make contact with the two groups of monitors who disappeared in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions earlier, a representative of the special OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine told reporters, according to Itar-Tass.

10:34 GMT:

#Donetsk:200-300ppl gathered near the admin bldg asking protection to Donbass children.DennisPushilin talking w/ them pic.twitter.com/GUNPvjlkWl

— PaulaSlier_RT (@PaulaSlier_RT) June 1, 2014

[John Dolva]

SLAVYANSK, June 01 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s troops have begun mortar shelling of Slavyansk suburbs, a spokesman for Slavyansk’s self-defence volunteer corps told Itar-Tass on Sunday. “Shelling became heavier after dark. They are using mortars and firearms,” he said.

Artillery shelling damaged the buildings of the Sails of Hope children’s home and the research institute, he added. According to the spokesman, a shell hit one of the walls of the children’s home.

“There were no children inside at the moment of shelling - they were evacuated from the town last week,” the spokesman said. As for the research institute, a mine exploded in front of the building breaking all the windows. Apart from that the shelling destroyed trolleybus power lines.

On Sunday evening, shooting was heard in the vicinity of Slavyansk, which is surrounded by the Ukrainian army. “There was a skirmish. No details are available. We are checking who was shooting and from where. Sporadic shooting is heard in the town,” a representative of volunteer corps said.

[John Dolva]

DONETSK, June 1 /ITAR-TASS/. Six self-defense fighters were killed as they attempted to take away the bodies of volunteer guards shot down by the Ukrainian military near Donetsk international airport over the week, the press office of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said on Sunday.

“During an attempt to take away the bodies of self-defense militiamen, the Ukrainian army fired at an ambulance and self-defense fighters, killing six people,” the press office of the Donetsk People’s Republic said.

The leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic are going to turn to the Red Cross humanitarian institution with a request to help remove the bodies from the territory adjacent to the airport, the press office said.

Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Borodai earlier said that about 60 self-defense forces and around 20 civilians had been killed in battles with the Ukrainian military near the Donetsk international airport.

Borodai said there were snipers near the airport controlled by the Ukrainian law-enforcers.

[John Dolva]

03:09 GMT:

The self-defense forces of Lugansk are fighting with members of the nationalistic Right Sector and the National Guard army near the border guard post in the southern part of the city, Itar-Tass reported, citing the press service of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Lugansk.

01:24 GMT:

Anti-Maidan activists gathered at Kulikovo field in Odessa, showing support to the people of Donbass. The theme of their demonstration was 'Children against Nazism.' People held flags and banners which said "Ukraine against Nazism" and "Fascism is a shame of Ukraine".