This ends our live blogging for June 15. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Aide: Ukrainian, Russian rights officials set to meet amid Sentsov standoff:
By RFE/RL's Russian Service
An aide to Ukraine's ombudswoman says the official is set to meet her Russian counterpart in Moscow next week amid a dispute over access to jailed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is on hunger strike in prison in far northern Russia following a terrorism conviction he says was fabricated.
Ukrainian ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova and Russian ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova have agreed to meet in the Russian capital on June 18, Olena Myachina, an aide to Denisova, told RFE/RL on June 15.
Denisova had previously declined to meet with Moskalkova after the Ukrainian official said she was prevented from meeting Sentsov after arriving at the penal colony where he is being held the Yamalo-Nenets region on June 15.
In a video statement on Facebook, Denisova said the warden and the regional prison service chief did not allow her to meet with Sentsov and gave no explanation for their decision.
Moskalkova, meanwhile, said that Denisova's attempt to meet with Sentsov violated "agreements reached previously."
Moskalkova told a television channel in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on June 15 that she had asked prison authorities to give doctors proposed by the Ukrainian side access to Sentsov alongside Russian doctors in order to conduct an "independent assessment" of the filmmaker's health.
Sentsov was arrested in Crimea in 2014, after Russia seized the Ukrainian region. A Russian court in 2015 convicted him of planning to commit terrorist acts and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He denies the accusations.
Sentsov has been on hunger strike since May 14, demanding that Russia release 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners.
Western governments and rights organizations have called for Sentsov to be released, and the Russian human rights group Memorial considers him a political prisoner.
The European Parliament on June 14 overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Russian authorities to release Sentsov and all the other "illegally detained Ukrainian citizens" in Russia and Russian-controlled Crimea “immediately and unconditionally." (w/TASS)
Second suspect detained in alleged Babchenko plot
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
KYIV -- The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says a second person has been detained in an alleged plot to assassinate Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, an outspoken Kremlin critic, in Kyiv.
The deputy head of the SBU's main investigative department, Bohdan Tyvodar, told a June 15 news conference that the suspect, a Ukrainian man, was detained two days earlier.
Tyvodar played what he said were recorded phone conversations between the suspect -- identified only as "Citizen T" -- and the alleged organizer of the plot on Babchenko's life, Ukrainian businessman Borys Herman.
In the recording, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed, two male voices are heard discussing how to travel from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Kyiv via Istanbul to avoid detection, as well as how to procure weapons.
"At present, there are sufficient grounds for suspecting Citizen T of involvement in the preparation of terrorist acts," Tyvodar said.
Tyvodar said the suspect was also being held on suspicion of illegal handling of weapons and explosives.
The SBU staged Babchenko's murder on May 29, claiming the extraordinary measure was the only way to save the journalist's life and catch the organizer it claims was tasked by Russian security services.
After Babchenko turned up alive at a SBU press conference the following day, the SBU said it had detained Herman, who the agency said oversaw the alleged plot.
Herman is alleged to have promised $40,000 to a would-be assassin for the killing of Babchenko.
The alleged would-be killer, a former Ukrainian monk turned army veteran named Oleksiy Tsymbalyuk, said he went to the SBU after Herman approached him. Tsymbalyuk says he worked with the agency to foil the plot.
Herman was remanded in custody for 60 days by a Kyiv court on May 31. (w/Christopher Miller in Kyiv, Zn.ua, and 112.ua)