OSCE observers kidnapped in Ukraine

(Vatican Radio) Ukraine's prime minister has warned of World War III, while pro-Russian forces

kidnapped observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Officials said Ukrainian special forces surrounded the key city of Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine where armed pro-Russian separatists managed to take over a bus with seven military observers from Europe's security organization OSCE.


The group, which was abducted Friday, includes four Germans, a Czech, a Swede, and a Dane, accompanied by five Ukrainian officers, authorities said.


None of the men were reportedly armed, but separatists took them into the city, where the rebel leader accused one of being a Kiev spy.

The OSCE had hoped to ease tensions in the east where pro-Russian forces want the region to break-away from Ukraine.


WORLD WAR III?
Amid the turmoil, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has accused Moscow of supporting separatists and seeking to invade Ukraine, with some 40,000 Russian troops moving closer to Ukraine's borders.


"The Russian military aggression on the territory of Ukraine will lead to a military conflict across Europe," Yatsenyuk told the interim cabinet in remarks broadcast live. "The world has not yet forgotten World War II, but Russia already wants to start World War III," he added.


Authorities have expressed concern that Russian military exercises that began Thursday using forces deployed from Volgograd, came within one kilometer of the Ukrainian border, while Russian fighter jets reportedly violated Ukrainian airspace.


However, the Russian military has accused Ukraine of massing troops near Russia's borders intent on acts of sabotage. And pro-Russian forces and demonstrators in the east of Ukraine have defended their decision not to leave occupied government buildings or to hand over weapons.


PRO-RUSSIAN ACTIVIST
"It's a mess," a pro-Russian activist said in the eastern city of Donetsk. "Those in power in Kiev are using the army to destroy the people in the east."


Underscoring tensions were reports that a Ukrainian army helicopter was hit with rocket and sniper fire at a military airstrip on the outskirts of Kramatorsk and destroyed.

The NATO military alliance has expressed concern and is boosting its presence across Eastern European member states, including in Poland and Baltic nations Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, in what some commentators have already called a new Cold War.


Listen to a report by Stefan Bos: