A number of videos made by Russian media are circulating of these two purported Ukrainian reservists after their capture by separatists.
Our Ukrainian Service says that with fighting continuing in Luhansk on the third and final day of mourning for the victims of attacks last week, authorities there are encouraging residents to stay home and avoid traveling in the city.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the new U.S. and EU sanctions are evidence that Russian efforts to divide Washington and Brussels aren't working, Reuters says. He also demanded that Russia stop supplying weapons to rebels in eastern Ukraine, saying his country will not be taken.
In a statement obtained by RFE/RL Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak, a spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has raised questions about Russia's "respect...of its international obligations" and expressed concern over Ukrainian military pilot Savchenko's abduction and handover to Russia. Here's the full text:
"We are concerned by the transferral to the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequent imprisonment of Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, following her kidnapping by militants in Eastern Ukraine.
This raises questions about the respect by the Russian Federation of its international obligations. We call on the Russian Federation to abide by its obligations as a Members State of the Council of Europe and party of the European Convention on Human Rights. In that context, we welcome that Ukraine's Consul in the Russian Federation has been able to meet with her."
Here's our latest story on Savchenko's plight.
Here's our newsroom's wrap-up of some of the various reactions from Russia that we've already chronicled to the U.S. and EU sanctions:
The Kremlin has blasted new U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia for its failure to take concrete steps to stop an escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine.
In a July 17 statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the sanctions a "primitive attempt to take revenge for the fact that events in Ukraine are developing differently from Washington's scenario," adding that "we do not intend to tolerate blackmail and reserve the right to take retaliatory measures."
On July 16, Washington announced new sanctions on a range of Russian companies from armaments producer Kalashnikov to Russian energy companies such as Rosneft and Novatek.
The Foreign Ministry also chided the European Union, saying Russia is disappointed that the EU "succumbed to U.S. blackmail."
Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on a visit to Brazil that the sanctions "will push U.S.-Russian relations into a dead end and cause very serious damage."
Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS, Interfax, and AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the new sanctions at a news conference today:
"Of course it is a deepening of the economic sanctions. Indirectly the [previous] listing of [sanctioned] individuals already amounted to economic sanctions, but [the latest decision] is a deepening of that. We can debate whether it's a stage two or three [of the sanctions], but that is irrelevant from my point of view. Nevertheless, we are entering the economic sphere here."
Authorities in Kyiv are flatly blaming a Russian warplane for the downing yesterday of a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter over Ukraine.
A spokesman for Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council, Andriy Lysenko, says a "military plane from the air force of the Russian Federation carried out a rocket strike on a Ukrainian Air Force SU-25 as it fulfilled its task over the territory of Ukraine" on the evening of July 16.
He said the pilot was able to eject from the plane and was evacuated safely.
Russia has not yet commented on the allegation.
Kyiv said a Ukrainian military transport plane downed on July 14 was "probably" hit by a missile fired from the Russian side of the border.