International observers released in Slavyansk
The UN confirms that all 12 military observers – seven foreigners and five Ukrainian officers – were released by the pro-Russian separatists who seized them i Slavyansk on April 25. Russia's RIA news agency quoted Vladimir Lukin, an envoy sent by President Vladimir Putin to negotiate the release, as saying: "All the 12 people who have been on my list have been released." They were freed a day after the Ukraine interim government launched its most substantial offensive yet to take rebel-held towns in eastern Ukraine, starting with Slavyansk.