From our News Desk:
Ukraine Charges Suspected Russian Soldiers With 'Terror Activity'
Ukraine says it has charged two suspected Russian soldiers who had been captured in the country's east with involvement in "terrorist activity."
An adviser for the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Markiyan Lubkivsky, wrote on Facebook on May 20 that the two men were also allowed to telephone their relatives in Russia.
Kyiv says it has captured the two men, identified as Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, in the eastern region of Lugansk on May 16.
The men claimed in a video that they were active Russian servicemen, but Moscow said they were no longer employed by the state when they were captured.
Russia has constantly denied accusations by Kyiv and the West that it is providing weapons, training, and personnel to rebels in eastern Ukraine, who are involved in a conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014.
Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax
From our News Desk:
Ukraine Open To Hosting Missile-Defense System Parts
The head of Ukraine's National Security Council has said Kyiv is open to placing parts of a missile-defense system on Ukrainian soil to ward off the potential risk of attacks from Russia.
Oleksandr Turchynov told the Ukrinform news agency on May 20: "I do not rule out that to defend ourselves from [Russia's] nuclear threat, we will have to hold consultations on deploying components of a missile-defense system on Ukrainian territory."
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would consider the deployment of such components to Ukraine "a threat to Russia's security."
"This will entail the need for taking retaliatory measures," he added.
Moscow has strongly criticized plans to build a U.S.-led missile shield in Europe, which NATO says is not directed against Russia but rather an attack from a country like Iran.
Based on reporting by AP and TASS
Slovak President Andrej Kiska visiting Kyiv today.
An art exhibition in Riga was forced by officials to remove an installation in which a man bearing a resemblance to Putin was being crucified.
A rather surprising claim...