-- Self-appointed leaders of the Ukrainian separatist region of Donetsk appealed to Russia to consider absorbing it to "restore historic justice" and to send in troops.
-- Pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk said they would not allow voting for the May 25 presidential election to be conducted.
-- Diplomats say the European Union agreed to impose sanctions against 13 additional individuals and two companies, believed to be the first time the EU has targeted companies over the Ukraine crisis.
-- Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov called the votes a "sham" and the United States said they were illegal and merely "an attempt to create further division and disorder in the country."
-- RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service said one of its affiliate radio stations in Donetsk was taken off the air by gunmen and replaced by a pro-Russian broadcaster.
-- The Kremlin said Ukrainian officials in Kyiv should hold talks with pro-Russian separatists on the results of the self-rule referendums, adding that it respected the "expression of the people's will."
Ukraine says one of detained int'l observers needs medical care
One of the international observers being held by pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk needs urgent medical care, Ukraine's state security service said on Saturday.
"Today the official representatives of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) are being held in inhuman conditions," the service said in a statement on its Internet site.
"Among those detained is a person who needs immediate medical help." The statement said Ukrainian security services were ready to provide medical assistance, but the separatists had rejected this offer.
"The terrorists plan to use the hostages as a human shield," the statement said.
It said the detention of the observers was planned and coordinated by a Russian citizen who Kiev says is a Russian special service operative. Russia denies that it has any of its troops or agents in eastern Ukraine.
13:4926.4.2014
Some reactions to Ukraine cutting off Crimea's water supply:
Possible consequences of cutting off Crimea's water range from losing sympathy of residents, to retaliatory gas cutoff by Russia, to war.
Some news agencies reporting that Russia is calling for the release of detained OSCE observers. Via AFP:
Russia on Saturday called for the release of an OSCE mission detained in Ukraine and vowed to do everything in its power to see them freed.
"We believe that these people should be released as soon as possible," the country's envoy to the pan-European security body, Andrei Kelin, told the state RIA Novosti news agency.
"As an OSCE member, Russia will take all possible steps in this case."
"We are unaware of what has happened to them or where they are at the moment. But like other OSCE members, we are very worried by what has happened."
Kelin added that responsibility for what happened lay with the Ukrainian authorities who had invited the mission.
13:1226.4.2014
Via Reuters:
EU to add new names to Russian sanctions list in coming days-source
BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) - The European Union is poised to add new names to its list of Russians subject to sanctions over the coming days and will hold emergency talks on Monday, EU sources said.
Leaders of the Group of Seven major economies agreed on Saturday to impose extra sanctions on Russia over its intervention in Ukraine, where armed pro-Moscow separatists detained a group of international observers and accused them of being NATO spies.
"The sanctions that will come on the European side in the next days will be the addition of new names to the list of individuals subject to asset freezes and a travel ban," a European Commission source said on condition of anonymity.
13:0526.4.2014
Now Latvia complains of Russian agents at work Latvia says Russia trying to use 'provocateurs' in Baltic state http://t.co/NWHP2PWBed
RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia's defence minister said on Friday Russia was trying to stir unrest in the Baltic state by using "specially-trained, professional provocateurs" in the wake of its intervention in Ukraine.
The Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, now NATO and EU member states, were once part of the Soviet Union and have substantial Russian-speaking minorities, like Ukraine.
"There are risks that Russia might try to destabilise the situation in the region," Raimonds Vejonis, Latvia's defence minister, told Reuters in an interview.
"We see it very clearly in Ukraine's case, where they have acted and are still trying to escalate the situation in different ways," the minister added.
"They are trying to increase negative sentiment in society through certain specially-trained, professional provocateurs."
As an example, he mentioned comments by Aleksandr Gaponenko, an activist for non-citizens' rights in Latvia, to Norwegian television that Latvia's government intended "to suppress protests with the power of army".
13:0326.4.2014
The Kyiv Post has a write up on Igor Strelkov, an alleged Russian Military Intelligence officer (GRU) officer believed to be leading the "Donbass Peoples' Militia"
The man who Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) wants most in eastern Ukraine, alleged Russian Military Intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov, has emerged beyond command-and-control recordings to give a news conference in the restive city of Sloviansk on April 26, reported Life News, a Russian media outlet.
Video footage shows him dressed in military fatigue with a Saint George ribbon tied to his left arm as the self-proclaimed commander of the “Donbass People’s Militia.” Sitting beside Denis Pushilin, who calls him the chairman of “People’s Republic of Donbass,” the Russian acknowledged that the SBU on April 25 had detained self-proclaimed Sloviansk Deputy Mayor Ihor Perepychayenko in Donetsk Airport.
Meanwhile, Strelkov's "appearance" is generating a lot of buzz on Twitter. Some choice tweets:
Strelkov is the same 'Strelok' from intercepted convos who led an op during which a Ukrainian SBU officer was killed, check #grusloviansk
Workers in Crimea today removing a huge Sevastopol monument to military and civic leader Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny, an icon of Ukrainian national identity and culture who organized and led troops against Moscow in the 17th century.
