Live Blog: Crisis In Ukraine (Archive)

Pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels holding an international team of observers from the OSCE said Sunday they are "prisoners of war".

Self-declared mayor of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov told a small group of reporters, including AFP, that the team was being kept in the town hall, but did not permit media access to them.

He added that the group's driver, who had been seized with them on Friday, had been released, bringing the number of detainees in the OSCE military verification mission to 12: eight Europeans and four accompanying members of the Ukrainian army.

"They are prisoners of war," Ponomaryov repeated several times.

"In our town, where a war situation is going on, any military personnel who don't have our permission are considered prisoners of war."

He repeated that they would only be freed in exchange for Kiev's authorities releasing arrested pro-Moscow militants.

And he stressed that the rebels did not consider the detained men part of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring mission deployed in Ukraine.

The OSCE headquarters in Vienna has said the military verification mission is a separate unit headed by German command.

"I can't say that they aren't taking sides in events here, because the United States and NATO are delivering weapons and sending (military) trainers" to Kiev, and foreign private security firms were active, Ponomaryov claimed....

Ponomaryov, who was wearing a pistol in a holster and escorted by two armed bodyguards, did not say why the seized group were being kept in the town hall instead of the SBU secret services building the rebels are also occupying in the town.

He did claim, though, that the OSCE observers "are not our hostages -- they are our guests".

Tensions are rising between Washington and Moscow over the taking of international observers hostage by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone April 26 but failed to reach agreement.

Kerry asked Moscow to support efforts to free the military observers, who represent the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

But Lavrov asked Washington to use its influence to win the release of pro-Russian separatist leaders who have been detained by authorities in Kyiv.

Lavrov's request comes as Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the leader of pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, says his group is ready to exchange the international observers they are holding for fellow rebels held in Kyiv.

Ponomaryov said the detained OSCE observers, thought to number 13 people, were spies and were “in alright condition.”

But in Kyiv, the Ukrainian Security Service says one of the members of the observer mission members is being held in "inhuman conditions" and is in urgent need of medical care.

The OSCE is sending representatives to negotiate the release of the group.
Andrei Kelin, Russia's envoy to the OSCE, said on April 26 that Moscow will "undertake all possible steps" to free the observers.

The Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial powers has agreed to move forward with additional sanctions against Russia if Moscow does not take concrete measures to support an agreement reached in Geneva agreement last week to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine.

A G7 statement on April 26 said that because of the urgent need to ensure "a successful and peaceful democratic vote next month in Ukraine's presidential election," the group has "committed to act urgently to intensify targeted sanctions."

The statement comes amid media reports quoting unnamed European Union and U.S. administration officials saying the United States and the EU will announce new targeted sanctions against Russian individuals as early as April 28.

The White House said on April 26 that fresh U.S. sanctions have been prepared, but would not immediately comment on the timing or details of who would be targeted.

EU diplomats are to meet in Brussels on April 28 to flesh out the details of what they are calling an additional list of “stage two” sanctions -- such as asset freezes and travel bans.

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations says Moscow has not yet decided whether it will recognize the results of Ukraine's May 25 presidential election.

Vitaly Churkin told the daily "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in an interview published on April 26 that Russian officials "are watching how they take place."

Western governments have criticized Moscow for not exerting its influence to get pro-Russian separatists to leave occupied buildings in eastern Ukraine -- a move Russia had promised to undertake as part of last week's Geneva agreement.

But Churkin said the Ukrainian government "must take the first step." He said Ukraine's government should disarm the nationalist group Right Sector and get Euromaidan activists to leave government buildings in Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said April 26 that Russian airspace violations were a "provocation to war."

Ukrainian presidential candidate and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said in Kyiv on April 26 that "Ukraine must be strong and must repel the invader, so that he will never have such plans and intentions again."

Separately, Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic,said April 26 that he will go ahead with an independence referendum for his separatist region on May 11.