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
Pro-Kyiv military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk says there were no "major hostilities" overnight in the area of Ukrainian counterterrorism operations, though two checkpoints were attacked in Luhansk.
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"The truth is that Putin relishes making fools out of Western leaders. He has done so for years — being allowed to attend meetings of the G8, a club of the leading capitalist democracies, even though he was neither a capitalist nor a democrat.
But his presence in Normandy deeply affronts the memories of the British, American and Canadian men and the French civilians who died in the carnage on and after D-Day."
There are doubts even in pro-EU circles about Ukraine's EU deal, Iana Dreyer of borderlex.eu notes. Here's an excerpt:
The deal is a paler copy of previous Association Agreements with Central and Eastern European countries which were destined to become member states. Those agreements involved a trade-off: the candidate countries were asked to apply the entire rule book of the EU – the so-called “acquis communautaire” – in return for joining the EU and benefiting from the “four freedoms” of the EU’s single market (the freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and people).
The Ukraine deal imposes a more selective set of EU regulations and directives on sectors like finance, transport, telecommunications, energy, and in areas like competition policy and government procurement. It also enjoins Ukraine to apply EU social and labour regulations and other regulations like geographical indicators for food products or the EU’s animal welfare rules. In return, the EU’s offer to Ukraine to access its market is also less comprehensive than in pre-EU accession Agreements.
You can read more at Johnson's Russia List or Borderlex.
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That concludes our live blogging for June 4. Follow news on Ukraine and our entire broadcast region HERE.
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We have published a commentary contributed to us by Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsia, via our Ukrainian Service. It's titled "Russia, Take Your Terrorists Back Home."
