Ukrainian servicemen ride in a tank close to the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk, a facility which has been the site of intense fighting for several weeks.
The Kremlin is denying that Russian officials have been invited to further gas talks by EU Commissioner Oettinger, according to Interfax:
There are no plans for the nearest future of holding top-level meetings or talks between Russia and Ukraine mentioned by European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger; no proposals to this end have been made, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said.
"The Russian side has not received invitations to meetings or talks," he said.
No meetings or talks are planned for today or the nearest future, he said.
17:4611.6.2014
A new line of T-shirts featuring Putin's image has gone on sale at a department store on Moscow's Red Square. The designers said their work was inspired by the Russian president's "numerous victories on the international stage" in recent months. One portrays Putin vacationing, drink in hand, in Crimea. Others refer to him as "The Politest Of People" in a reference to the "polite people" euphemism Putin used to describe Russian soldiers who occupied Crimea in February. The campaign was organized by a group called "Vsyo Putyom" ("It's All Right"), a pun on the Russian leader's name. (Video by RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Slovyansk continues to bear the brunt of the current fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists:
15:0311.6.2014
14:5511.6.2014
Latest on the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, from our news desk:
President Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine is driving gas talks toward a "dead-end" by asking for further discounts.
Putin, speaking on June 11, instructed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to formalize a decision to reduce by $100 the price Kyiv pays per 1,000 cubic metres -- from $485 to $385.
The reduction comes in the form of an exemption from export duty for Ukraine-bound gas.
14:5411.6.2014
Russia is building the South Stream pipeline to eliminate Ukraine as a transit state for gas exports to Europe. But after a Bulgarian surprise this week, the planned conduit suddenly has nowhere to go.
