14:48
3.5.2014
RT has video that appears to show people jumping out of the burning trade union building, after it was set on fire yesterday in Odesa.
13:59
3.5.2014
More reporting from our Ukraine Service on what's happening in Kramatorsk:
Ukraine's Interior Ministry says its forces have retaken the security service headquarters in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.
The ministry said earlier that its forces had retaken control of the city's airport and a television tower.
Kramatorsk is south of the rebel stronghold of Slovyansk.
Local television showed pictures of armored personnel carriers moving through the town.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said military operations against pro-Russian separatists had resumed at dawn on May 3.
The ministry said earlier that its forces had retaken control of the city's airport and a television tower.
Kramatorsk is south of the rebel stronghold of Slovyansk.
Local television showed pictures of armored personnel carriers moving through the town.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said military operations against pro-Russian separatists had resumed at dawn on May 3.
13:52
3.5.2014
Buses have reportedly been set on fire by separatists, who trying to block the roads.
13:49
3.5.2014
Via Reuters, more comments from Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin:
"In the last 24 hours we have received thousands of phone calls from the south-eastern regions of Ukraine. People call in despair, they ask for help, they confirm that the situation there is horrendous. Most of the people literally demand active help from Russia. Almost every call is a mini tragedy. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is being notified of all these calls."
"[Russian President Vladimir Putin] is extremely concerned with the way the situation is evolving and the way it is being interpreted by the international community, especially by some countries. Putin is deeply disturbed by the actions of the Kyiv authorities, that can only be qualified as a crime. The president expresses deep grief and compassion to those who unfortunately died or were injured as a result of the Kyiv regime's actions."
"The tragedy in Odesa where nationalist and radicals with the permission of authorities burned unarmed people alive -- and I would like to underline that people were completely unarmed -- this is the crime of the Kyiv authorities. They are not only responsible for these crimes but are also complicit in these actions."
"In the last 24 hours we have received thousands of phone calls from the south-eastern regions of Ukraine. People call in despair, they ask for help, they confirm that the situation there is horrendous. Most of the people literally demand active help from Russia. Almost every call is a mini tragedy. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is being notified of all these calls."
"[Russian President Vladimir Putin] is extremely concerned with the way the situation is evolving and the way it is being interpreted by the international community, especially by some countries. Putin is deeply disturbed by the actions of the Kyiv authorities, that can only be qualified as a crime. The president expresses deep grief and compassion to those who unfortunately died or were injured as a result of the Kyiv regime's actions."
"The tragedy in Odesa where nationalist and radicals with the permission of authorities burned unarmed people alive -- and I would like to underline that people were completely unarmed -- this is the crime of the Kyiv authorities. They are not only responsible for these crimes but are also complicit in these actions."
13:47
3.5.2014
BREAKING: Ukraine's Interior Ministry says its forces have retaken the security service headquarters in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, once occcupied by pro-Russian separatists. The ministry said earlier that its forces had retaken control of the city's airport and a television tower.
13:46
3.5.2014
Reuters has video of the release of seven OSCE military observersm who have been held hostage by pro-Russian rebels in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk.
13:21
3.5.2014
13:20
3.5.2014
Away from Odesa, our Tatar-Bashkir Service is reporting that Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev has again been denied entry into Crimea, after first being turned back at a Moscow airport on his way from Kyiv to Simferopol on May 2.
Thousands of Crimean Tatars who had gone to a border-crossing point near Armyansk to meet Dzhemilev on May 3 broke through lines of Russian troops to reach their leader. They say they will return to Crimea only if Dzhemilev is with them.
Leyla Muslimova, a spokeswoman for the Crimean Tatar's main self-government body, the Mejlis, says Crimea's Interior Ministry told Mejlis leader Refat Chubarov that Dzhemilev will not be allowed into Crimea.
Regional Mejlis officials have called for a blockade of roads across the peninsula to protest the move.
The acting head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, was quoted on May 2 as saying Dzhemilev had been "tasked by Western special services with destabilizing the situation" and would be prevented from entering.
Leyla Muslimova, a spokeswoman for the Crimean Tatar's main self-government body, the Mejlis, says Crimea's Interior Ministry told Mejlis leader Refat Chubarov that Dzhemilev will not be allowed into Crimea.
Regional Mejlis officials have called for a blockade of roads across the peninsula to protest the move.
The acting head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, was quoted on May 2 as saying Dzhemilev had been "tasked by Western special services with destabilizing the situation" and would be prevented from entering.
13:14
3.5.2014
12:54
3.5.2014
BuzzFeed's Mike Giglio recounts his time in captivity in eastern Ukraine.
She decided to perform an interrogation on the prisoners, to determine that they were really who they claimed to be. The questions were basic, almost laughable, as if a regular person — which most of the captors certainly were — were trying hard to act like they thought a hostage-taker should.
To prove that I was a U.S. citizen as advertised, the woman asked me to name the U.S. capital, then to pronounce the word “garden.” I passed, but a British journalist wasn’t so lucky, receiving two stiff punches from one of the armed men when the English-speaking woman questioned the integrity of his accent. “Are you American?” the woman demanded of the poor man.
To prove that I was a U.S. citizen as advertised, the woman asked me to name the U.S. capital, then to pronounce the word “garden.” I passed, but a British journalist wasn’t so lucky, receiving two stiff punches from one of the armed men when the English-speaking woman questioned the integrity of his accent. “Are you American?” the woman demanded of the poor man.