Abducted OSCE observers freed in east Ukraine as crisis spirals

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Nick Paton Walsh and Ralph Ellis, CNN

May 3, 2014 -- Updated 0951 GMT (1751 HKT)

Ukrainian soldiers arrive to reinforce a checkpoint that troops seized Friday, May 2, in Andreevka, a village near Slavyansk. Two helicopters were downed Friday as Ukrainian security forces tried to dislodge pro-Russian separatists from Slavyansk, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said. The operation appears to be the most significant yet by the Ukrainian military against pro-Russian militias that have taken control of swaths of eastern Ukraine.

Slavyansk, Ukraine (CNN) -- A team of international military observers seized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was freed Saturday as Kiev resumed military action to tackle the pro-Moscow gunmen who have overrun the region.

Separatists abducted 12 members of security watchdog the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the flashpoint city of Slavyansk on April 25. The team included Ukrainians and Westerners.

The self declared mayor of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, confirmed the release of members of the OSCE mission, adding Russian envoy Vladimir Lukin, who arrived in eastern Ukraine on Friday, had helped negotiate their release

An OSCE delegation was waiting to collect the observers at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the town, he said, adding there had been no prisoner exchange.

"Right now we are expecting another storming of the town," Ponomarev told CNN.

The OSCE also confirmed the release in a tweet. Western leaders had condemned the abductions.

Military operations

The news came as Ukraine's government resumed military action to tackle pro-Russian separatists in the east, where violence flared on Friday.

Pro-Russian separatists downed two helicopters in the volatile region while clashes in the southern port city of Odessa sparked a fire that killed 31 people, raising the question of whether the country can stave off a possible civil war.

The violence pit pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian forces and those who support the government in Kiev. It prompted an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, with Russia demanding an end to what it called Ukrainian aggression and Western powers accusing Moscow of funding the violence.

Security forces launched their most intensive effort yet on Friday to try to dislodge the separatists who have reportedly seized government buildings in nearly a dozen cities and towns.

On Saturday, Kiev's government confirmed a second day of military operations in the east.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the "active phase of the operation" would resume at dawn, with Ukrainian forces taking a television tower in Kramatorsk, some 16 kms (10 miles) from Slavyansk.

"We are not stopping," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.

Helicopters downed

In Slavyansk on Friday, two Ukrainian government helicopters were shot down. The helicopters were brought down by fire from pro-Russian separatists, Kiev's defense ministry said.

Five pro-Russian separatists and two civilians were killed in the city in a Ukrainian military operation, Ponomaryov said.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed during an attack in the village of Andriyivka, near Slavyansk, the defense ministry said. The gunmen also blocked a bridge in the area, using local residents, including women, as shields, according to the ministry.

Hundreds of miles away in Odessa, 31 people died in a fire started at a trade union building amid clashes, police said.

Video posted on YouTube appeared to show supporters of Kiev throwing Molotov cocktails at the building where pro-Russian separatists had reportedly taken up positions. The footage, which CNN could not independently confirm, showed people sitting on ledges trying to escape the fire and thick smoke.

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged on Friday to seek harsher sanctions against Russia if Ukraine doesn't stabilize in time for elections this month.

But the threat seemed to do little to waive off Moscow, with its foreign ministry saying Ukraine's use of its military in Slavyansk is criminal.

Russia and the West squared off diplomatically over the fate of Ukraine after Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March following the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He was pushed from office after months of protests by people upset that he had turned away from Europe in favor of Moscow.

'Nail in the coffin'

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told CNN the military operation was "the last nail in the coffin" for the deal agreed to last month in Geneva, Switzerland, which called for illegal militia groups in eastern Ukraine to disarm and vacate seized buildings.

Slavyansk residents were warned on Friday to stay home and avoid windows as the latest phase of the authorities' "anti-terrorist operation" got under way.

The two Mi24 helicopters were downed with mobile air defense systems, killing two military officers and injuring others, according to a statement on Kiev's defense ministry's website. Another army helicopter, an Mi8, was damaged, but no one was hurt, it said.

Pro-Russian separatists took one badly injured pilot hostage after his helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing, the ministry said, and efforts to free him are ongoing.

Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said one helicopter that came under attack was carrying medics, one of whom was injured.