You're reading: Wall Street Journal: Ukraine says military observers taken hostage

 Pro-Russian militants took a group of military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe hostage April 25, Ukrainian authorities said, signaling that the security situation in already tense eastern Ukraine was deteriorating. The incident came as Kyiv refocused its military operation in the region on isolating separatist insurgents rather than confronting them head-on and risking civilian casualties. The day before, Ukrainian soldiers killed several militants and Russia mobilized a large-scale military exercise on the border.

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