6 June 2014

The Governor of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration Serhiy Taruta announced that militants in the oblast are holding more than 200 hostages, from various countries. One of the problems of the government negotiations with the separatists is that the militants do not have clear political goals. Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk continue to declare independence from Ukraine and refuse to recognise the Poroshenko government. Putin continues to deny military involvement, despite the fact that Russian citizens and Russian arms are involved with the pro-Russian, separatist forces. And the fact that Putin is saying that he will enter talks with Poroshenko if he agrees to end what Putin calls an attack on civilians.

Today Poroshenko had a short meeting with Putin and Merkel in France ahead of commemorations of the 70^th anniversary of D-Day. The substance of the discussion is unknown as of yet.

In other news, Crimean Tatar people are organising themselves to play a role in freeing Ukraine from the terrorists that receive orders from Russia, activist Oleksiy Arestovych announced via his Facebook page. “The Crimean Tatar People battalion “Crimea” will soon join other Ukrainian volunteer battalions,” he states. This is different from the Crimean Nationalist Movement. 

In Slovyansk, an airplane carrying humanitarian aid headed for Ukrainian-held areas of the Donetsk Region was shot down by rocket fire. It is unclear whether the crew survived.

Further, five Ukrainian television channels were taken off the air by the Matrix television company in the Donetsk Region. The company explained that it did so under pressure from separatists who threatened the use of violence if the company did not stop broadcasting Ukrainian television. The television channels include major news and information channels otherwise widely available to the Ukrainian public. (from http://projectmaidan.com/post/88027215437/ukraine-news-summary-june-6th-2014)

Representatives of the People’s Republic of Donetsk tried to organize a concert in Donetsk today.
Not many people showed up.