Separatist leader vows to retake towns:
A self-proclaimed leader of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine has pledged to take control of cities controlled by Ukraine's government.
Aleksandr Zakharchenko said on May 29 in the rebel-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk that separatist forces will regain control over Slovyansk, Kostyantynivka, and Krasnoarmiyisk, which were briefly held by the rebels last year.
He said "as soon as we realize" that retaking the towns by political means is not possible, "a decision will be made to liberate these territories."
Zakharchenko, who calls himself the head of state and prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, has previously pledged that rebel military forces would retake areas in Ukraine's Donetsk region not currently held by the separatists.
More than 6,100 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian forces and the Russian-backed separatists. (Interfax, TASS)
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Russian opposition activist Aleksei Navalny has just been talking to VOA and RFE/RL. Not surprisingly, Ukraine featured prominently in his comments:
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny says Vladimir Putin will stop at nothing to maintain his "monopoly on power" and accused the Russian president of launching a war against Ukraine in order to enrich himself and his inner circle.
"I really hope that he doesn't press the nuclear button right before his death and doesn't want to take the rest of humanity with him to the grave," Navalny said in a joint May 28 interview with the Russian-language services of RFE/RL and VOA.
"But I don't see any barriers or limits, or actions that he won't take in order to keep his power atop all of Russia," Navalny added.
In the wide-ranging interview, Navalny accused Putin of instigating the war in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv's forces that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014, calling the Kremlin's role in the conflict a "crime."
"It's not just a political mistake, it is a crime against both the Russian Federation and the Russian people, and an international crime," he said. "What needs to be done? This war must be stopped."
Russia rejects accusations by Western governments, NATO, and Kyiv that it is providing weapons, soldiers, and training to the separatists in eastern Ukraine, where a tenuous cease-fire is in place. The Kremlin claims that Russian citizens fighting alongside the rebels have gone there voluntarily and independently.
"We know precisely who started the war in Ukraine: It was Putin and his circle," Navalny said. "And he did it in order to maintain his monopoly on power so that he can keep, among other things, his exclusive right for him and his people to enrich themselves."
Navalny also criticized Russia's leadership in the case of two Russian men captured by Ukrainian forces during a firefight in eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv says the two men are active members of the Russian military, an assertion backed up by video testimony the captives gave from a Ukrainian hospital where they were being treated for wounds, though Moscow claims they were not enlisted at the time of their detention.
Navalny said in the interview that Moscow should exchange Ukrainian pilot and parliament member Nadia Savchenko, who has been jailed in Russia since July, for the two men.
Read the entire article here
WATCH: Aleksei Navalny Blasts Vladimir Putin As "Cynical, Corrupt"
Another update from RFE/RL's news desk:
President Petro Poroshenko has signed legislation granting Ukraine's cash-starved government the right to stop payments to foreign debt holders.
The presidential press service said on May 28 that the law would come into effect once it was published and remain in force until July 2016.
The Ukrainian cabinet has said the legislation, adopted by parliament last week, is needed to protect "state assets" from "unscrupulous creditors."
Russia says that if Ukraine were to default on its obligations, it would "defend its national interests."
The country holds a $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond whose full repayment is due by the end of the year.
Ukraine's move comes as it negotiates the terms for restructuring $23 billion worth of foreign debt.
Kyiv hopes to secure the next tranche of a $17.5 billion bailout program with the IMF this summer to shore up its foreign currency reserves.
(Interfax, TASS, Reuters)