After the weekend loss of 49 troops when pro-Russian rebels shot down a military transport plane, Ukraine's new president Poroshenko ordered to armed and security forces to retake full control of their border with Russia - saying this could then pave the way for negotiations.
Western-backed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, elected last month to replace the Kremlin-friendly leader ousted in February, said on Monday he wanted troops to regain full control of the border with Russia this week. After that, there could be a ceasefire and efforts to come up with a peace plan.
"The ceasefire will be declared as soon as the border is secure," Poroshenko told his security chiefs. "Declaring a ceasefire while the border is open would be irresponsible."
His remarks underlined his concern that Russia is supporting the rebels by sending in tanks, guns and men. Hopes of a lowering of tension had already been dented before the gas talks failed by the downing of the plane near the eastern frontier, an attack on Russia's embassy in Kiev and new accusations from NATO that Russia is arming the Ukrainian rebels.
Meanwhile, Hospitals in Sloviansk, where an armed standoff continues between the militia and a Ukrainian law enforcement contingent, are experiencing serious problems and all of them remain closed on June 16, said Olena Petriayeva, acting deputy director of the health department in the Donetsk regional state administration.
Ukraine is ready to let Russian militants lay down their arms and leave its territory, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Andriy Parubiy says.
Militants fighting government troops in Ukraine's regions of Donetsk and Luhansk number "between 15.000 and 20.000 militants" in total, and "more than half of them have come across from Russian territory," added Andriy Parubiy, on June 16.
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine today ordered the government to carry an one-side demarcation of the Ukrainian-Russian border in terms of existing threats to national security, said Parubiy.
Further more, Parubiy informed the public that Ukrainian authorities are mulling a ban for Russian vessels' visit to the ports at the Sea of Azov and the suspension of work of railway and airport checkpoints at the border with Russia.
Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema has announced that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko imposed a ban on military-technological cooperation with Russia at a meeting of the country's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).
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