President Vladimir Putin's first deputy chief of staff, Vyacheslav Volodin and the self-declared mayor of Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, and two legal entities are added to the EU sanctions list for "undermining or threatening" Ukraine's sovereignty. 14 May – Talks to end the crisis in Ukraine begin, without representatives of pro-Russian separatist groups. 16 May Pro-Russian rebels quickly withdraw from Mariupol as dozens of unarmed pro-Ukraine steelworkers with some employed by System Capital Management joined by the police start to patrol the city. A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a communications satellite veers off its intended path and burns up in the atmosphere. 19 May 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: Russia's President Vladimir Putin says he ordered troops in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions to withdraw and return to their permanent bases. NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, says the Western allies had not seen any sign of a withdrawal of Russian forces. 20 May – The President of Russia Vladimir Putin arrives in the People's Republic of China for a state visit. 21 May Graham Phillips, a British national and reporter for the Russian TV network RT, is detained in Mariupol by the SBU. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin sign a massive 30-year natural gas export contract worth $400 billion. 22 May 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: At least 11 Ukrainian Army soldiers are killed and 30 injured when pro-Russian separatists attack a military checkpoint. Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine declares martial law and asks Russia to send peacekeeping troops to protect civilians. The unrecognised Federal State of New Russia confederation is declared and agreements were signed between leaders of two self-proclaimed republics. Negotiations between Iran and Russia regarding the building of two additional nuclear reactors at Iran's Bushehr power plant take place. 23 May Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that he will respect the outcome of Ukraine's presidential election. Russia and China veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have asked the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Syria. Research shows that the Chelyabinsk meteor was the remnants of an asteroid that collided with another asteroid 290 million years before entering the Earth's atmosphere over Russia in February of last year. 26 May 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: Pro-Russian militants force the closure of Donetsk International Airport a day after preventing any voters in the city of Donetsk from casting a vote in the Ukrainian