Ukraine captives on display

Militants parade hostages to media

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine - Pro-Russian militants in camouflage fatigues and black masks paraded captive European military observers before the media Sunday, hours after three captured Ukrainian security guards were shown bloodied, blindfolded, and stripped of their trousers and shoes, their arms bound with packing tape.

The displays came as the increasingly violent pro-Russian insurgency in the east turns to kidnapping as a new tactic.

Dozens of people are being held hostage, including journalists and pro-Ukrainian activists, in makeshift jails in Slovyansk, the heart of the separatists’ territory, as the pro-Russian insurgents strengthen their control in defiance of the interim government in Kiev and its Western supporters.

In deliberate and clipped phrases, Col. Axel Schneider of Germany, speaking on behalf of the observers, insisted they were not NATO spies, as claimed by the insurgents, but members of a military observation mission operating under the auspices of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“We are not fighters; we are diplomats in uniform,” he said, noting that his un-armed team included an officer from Sweden, which is not a NATO member.

The observers appeared nervous as they were escorted by the masked, armed men into the Slovyansk City Hall for the news conference.

Referring to himself and his team as “guests” under the “protection” of the city’s self-proclaimed mayor, Schneider said they were being treated as well as possible under the circumstances.

“The mayor of this city granted us his protection and he regarded us as his guests,” Schneider said. “I can tell you that the word of the mayor is a word of honor. We have not been touched.”

Schneider said his group,which was detained by pro-Russian militiamen outside Slovyansk on Friday, was initially kept in a basement before being moved Saturday.

“Since yesterday, we have been in a more comfortable room, which has been equipped with heating. We have daylight and an air-conditioning unit,” he said, “All our officers, including the interpreters, are healthy and well.”

Accredited diplomats being presented to the media as what Slovyansk’s insurgency-appointed mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, has described as “bargaining chips” provoked disgust in European capitals.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the act as “revolting” and a violation of the men’s dignity.

One of the observers, Swedish officer Maj. Thomas Johansson, was released later in the day “on humanitarian grounds as he has a mild form of diabetes,” said Stella Khorosheva, a spokesman for Ponomarev. The officer got into a car with Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe representatives outside City Hall and rode off with them.

Schneider, who was speaking before the Swede was freed, said that he had no information about when they would be released and that this was a matter for diplomats of their countries. The group also includes officers from Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

The German colonel said he understood that the Slovyansk mayor could use the observers as a bargaining chip.

“Our presence here in Slovyansk is for sure a political instrument for the decision-makers here in the region and the possibility to use it for negotiations,” Schneider said. “It’s logical in the eyes of Mayor Ponomarev that he can use us to present his positions.”

Ponomarev said Saturday that the European observers could be released in exchange for jailed pro-Russian activists.

Overnight Saturday, the insurgents captured three Ukrainian security guards who were shown to Russian journalists in the Security Service headquarters in Slovyansk. Barely conscious and showing signs of sustained beatings, they sat with their heads bowed.

In footage obtained by The Associated Press, Russian reporters could be heard haranguing the officers, who were able to reply only in faintly audible monosyllables.

Igor Strelkov, who has been identified as the commander of the armed insurgents, said the three Ukrainian officers were on a mission to seize leaders of the pro-Russian force when they were captured.

Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed that its officers had been seized by armed men and said they were on a mission to detain a Russian suspected in the killing of a Ukrainian parliament member.

Also Sunday, several hundred pro-Russian activists stormed the television broadcasting center in Donetsk, the regional capital of eastern Ukraine, to demand that Russian state channels be put back on the air. The Kiev government last month blocked broadcast of the Russian channels, which are seen as serving as propaganda tools for the Kremlin.

The crowd included several dozen men wearing camouflage fatigues and face masks, the standard uniform of the pro-Russian forces that have seized government buildings in at least 10 cities in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government and the West have accused Russia of using covert forces to encourage the unrest in eastern Ukraine, and Strelkov has been identified as a Russian security services operative by Ukraine’s government.

In what appeared to be a closely vetted interview to Russian media, Strelkov did not directly deny the accusation, saying the uprising in Ukraine was being carried out by opponents of the “Kiev junta” - language similar in tone to the view adopted by the Kremlin leadership.

The U.S. and other nations in the Group of Seven have announced plans to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine. The European Union also is planning more sanctions, with ambassadors from the bloc’s 28 members to meet today in Brussels to add to the list of Russian officials who have been hit by asset freezes and travel bans.

“I have the impression” that the EU will extend visa bans and asset freezes to “maybe another 15 people,” German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said in an interview on ZDF television.

Earlier Sunday, President Barack Obama said in Malaysia that the U.S. would be in a stronger position to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin once Putin sees the world is unified in punishing Russia.

Obama is pushing back against suggestions the U.S. should levy sanctions on its own against broad sectors of Russia’s economy. He said the U.S. and Europe must act collectively.

Obama said Russia wants to portray the Ukraine crisis through a Cold War prism that pits Washington against Moscow. But the real issue, Obama said, is Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty.

Obama said Russia isn’t abiding by a deal reached to de-escalate the conflict.

“Russia has not lifted a finger to help,” Obama said.

He also said there’s strong evidence Russia is encouraging destabilizing activities in eastern and southern Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague echoed the sentiment. “The more names weadd to that list, the more they do bite in the Russian economy,” Hague said on Sky News. “But we are also working on more far-reaching measures of economic, trade and financial sanctions. … We will go ahead with them if necessary, if Russia continues to escalate this crisis.”

The U.S. and EU will impose new sanctions as early as today on Russian companies and individuals close to Putin over the escalating crisis in Ukraine, officials said.

“We will be looking to designate people who are in his inner circle, who have a significant impact on the Russian economy,” Deputy White House National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said on CBS’ Face the Nation program Sunday. “We’ll be looking to designate companies that they and other inner-circle people control. We’ll be looking at taking steps as well with regard to high-technology exports to their defense industry. All of this together is going to have an impact.”

The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pushed for targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy.

“To me, hitting four of the largest banks there would send shockwaves into the economy. Hitting Gazprom would certainly send shockwaves into the economy,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said, referring to Russia’s state gas monopoly.

Russia has stoked tensions in Ukraine with “threatening” military maneuvers and by “taking no concrete steps” to implement an April 17 accord meant to calm the crisis, the Group of Seven nations - the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan - said in a statement Friday.

Information for this article was contributed by Peter Leonard, Lynn Berry, Frank Jordans, Jill Lawless and Michelle Salcedo of The Associated Press; and by David Lerman, Andrew Atkinson, Daria Marchak, Jim Brunsden, Nicole Gaouette, Daryna Krasnolutska, Elena Mazneva, Mike Harrison and Tony Czuczka of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/28/2014

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