Sunday 13 April 2014 16.28 A Ukrainian state security service officer and a pro-Russian separatist have died, along with several people injured in an "anti-terrorist" operation in the eastern city of Slaviansk.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page that there had been an "unidentifiable number" of casualties among Pro-Russian separatists during the operation.
"There were dead and wounded on both sides," Mr Avakov said.
About 1,000 people were giving support to the separatists, he added.
Four state security officers were injured in the operation to dislodge the militants.
Moscow has warned it will act to protect eastern Ukraine's Russian-speakers if they come under attack.
Mr Avakov said security units from across the country had been brought in to launch an "anti-terrorist operation" to re-assert Kiev's control in Slaviansk.
"Pass this on to all civilians: they should leave the centre of town, not come out of their apartments, and not go near the windows," Mr Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.
Elsewhere,separatist protesters have seized control of the mayor's office in the town of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on the Azov Sea, local media said.
The protesters entered the building following a rally involving about 1,000 people demonstrating in favour of the creation of a separate republic in eastern Ukraine, a local journalist for the newspaper Priazovsky Worker said.
Police did not try to stop them. They entered the offices, took down the Ukrainian flag and were erecting barricades outside the building, the journalist said.
Yesterday, In the town of Kramatorsk, militants exchanged gunfire with police although there was no confirmation any one had been hurt.
Novosti Donbass, a local Internet news site, said that government forces had taken down two rebel barricades at entry points into Slaviansk, but there was no independent confirmation of this.
Residents in the town did not appear to have heeded the appeal by Mr Avakov and families were out on the streets on their normal Sunday business.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "extremely concerned" about the escalation of tensions in east Ukraine.
He said actions by uniformed, pro-Russian gunmen with military weapons pointed to an organised campaign to destabilise the region.
Drawing parallels with Crimea, the Ukrainian region Russia annexed last month after deploying forces there, he warned Moscow against further military interference.
"We see a concerted campaign of violence by pro-Russian separatists, aiming to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign state," Mr Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.
"The reappearance of men with specialised Russian weapons and identical uniforms without insignia, as previously worn by Russian troops during Russia's illegal and illegitimate seizure of Crimea, is a grave development.
"I call on Russia to de-escalate the crisis and pull back its large number of troops, including special forces, from the area around Ukraine's border," he said.
"Any further Russian military interference, under any pretext, will only deepen Russia's international isolation," he warned.
In Washington, the White House expressed concern that the seizures of public buildings in eastern Ukraine could be a prelude to a Russian military incursion, though Moscow has strenuously denied any such intention.
"We call on President (Vladimir) Putin and his government to cease all efforts to destabilize Ukraine, and we caution against further military intervention," said Laura Lucas Magnuson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.
US Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Kiev on 22 April, becoming the most senior US official to visit the country since the crisis began there.
Moscow justified sending its military into Crimea by saying the Russian population there was under threat, and some in Western governments believe the Kremlin is preparing a similar scenario for eastern Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has denied any such intentions and said instead it was Ukraine's Western-leaning government, viewed by the Kremlin as illegitimate, that was stoking the tensions.
Any use of force against Russian speakers "would undermine the potential for cooperation" between Moscow and Western powers over Ukraine, Mr Lavrov said in a statement after a telephone call with his US opposite number John Kerry.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon said in a statement he was deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine and "the growing potential for violent clashes".
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