Sunday 27 April 2014 16.36 Pro-Russian separatists have seized control of the offices of regional state television in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a Reuters reporter outside the building said.
The reporter said four separatists in masks, with truncheons and shields, were standing at the entrance to the building controlling access, while more separatists in camouflage fatigues could be seen inside.
Meanwhile, the leader of the international observers detained by pro-Russian separatists in the east Ukrainian city of Slaviansk said this afternoon that all the group were in good health.
However, he added that they were anxious to be allowed to go home soon.
Appearing in public for the first time since they were held three days ago, seven officers from the observer team and their translator were brought into a room of waiting journalists in the separatist-held city administration building.
Guards in camouflage fatigues and balaclavas, carrying Kalashnikov rifles, were also in the room as journalists spoke to the observers.
They were in Ukraine under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Colonel Axel Schneider, who was leading the observer mission, said the group came to Slaviansk without weapons and were there strictly in line with their mandate under OSCE rules, to carry out military verification work.
"We were accommodated in a cellar. We had to set up conditions for ourselves," said Col Schneider, describing what happened after they were seized.
"Since yesterday we've been in a more comfortable room with heating. We have daylight, and an air conditioner."
Col Schneider, who had a shaven head, a closely-cropped beard and was wearing a plaid button-down shirt, told reporters he had "not been touched," and that there had been no physical mistreatment of the group.
The group sat side by side at a long table in front of the reporters, looking sombre and serious, but otherwise well.
"All the European officers are in good health and no one is sick," Col Schneider said.
He said the separatist de factor mayor of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, had guaranteed the group's safety.
He said he believed the mayor's promise. Mr Ponomaryov appeared with the detained men at the news conference.
"We have no indication when we will be sent home to our countries," Col Schneider said.
"We wish from the bottom of our hearts to go back to our nations as soon and as quickly as possible."
Earlier today, US President Barack Obama said new international sanctions set to come into force against Russia would send a message that it must stop its "provocation" in eastern Ukraine.
"It is important for us to take further steps sending a message to Russia that these kinds of destabilising activities taking place in Ukraine has to stop," Mr Obama said at a press conference in Malaysia.
He was speaking a day after G7 nations said that they would impose new sanctions on Russia within days, accusing the government in Moscow of doing nothing to honour an agreement forged in Geneva aimed at easing tensions in Ukraine.
"So long as Russia continues down a path of provocation rather than trying to resolve this issue peacefully and de-escalate it, there are going to be consequences and those consequences will continue to grow," Mr Obama said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk claimed Russia had violated his country's airspace seven times overnight Friday with an aim "to provoke" Ukraine into starting a war.
US Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Washington was concerned about "provocative" troop movements along Russia's border with Ukraine and its support for the separatists, which he said "are undermining stability, security and unity in Ukraine".
Mr Yatsenyuk cut short a visit to the Vatican as concern grew that the tens of thousands of Russian troops conducting military drills on the border could soon be ordered to invade.
But Russia denied any transgression by its warplanes, with Mr Lavrov calling for "urgent measures" to calm the crisis, which has plunged East-West relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.
A Western diplomat warned: "We no longer exclude a Russian military intervention in Ukraine in the coming days."
The diplomatic source noted that Russia's UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, "has been recalled urgently to Moscow" for consultations.
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