The EU General Affairs Council has decided to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate countries, reads a draft decision which will be approved by the EU leaders on June 23, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported.

Russia is conducting military exercises with simulated missile attacks against Estonia, the Ministry of Defense of Estonia announced. A Russian Mi-18 helicopter is alleged to have entered the Estonian airspace for two minutes without permission on June 18. Estonia said the provocation against a NATO member was being made deliberately by Moscow ahead of the Alliance's summit in Madrid and after Lithuania’s decision to ban the transit of some goods by rail to Kaliningrad.

“We stand by our NATO allies and we stand by Lithuania”, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said. “Specifically our commitment to NATO’s Article Five- the premise that an attack on one would constitute an attack on all- that commitment on the part of the United States is ironclad”, Ned Price said further, AFP reports. Earlier, Nikolay Patrushev, Russia’s Security Council Secretary, threatened Lithuania with serious consequences if the Baltic country bans exports of goods to the exclave of Kaliningrad.