When did Putin admit he had military, in Eastern Ukraine?Everybody knows what’s going on. This is silly. There are Russian military in eastern Ukraine, or is anyone seriously suggesting the “little green men” are Ukrainian military who are too shy to wear their insignia? You can hardly look at any photographs from the region without seeing some of them. And they didn’t shoot down those Ukrainian helicopters with AK47s, that’s for sure.
google.com/images?q=ukraine+little+green+men&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ADFA_enUS486&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ei=yC5xU8PqG4KlyASwy4DgDw&ved=0CBsQsAQ
And Putin has admitted that he has military in Eastern Ukraine, as he admitted he had them in Crimea. opendemocracy.net/od-russia/valery-kalnysh/little-green-men-slovyansk-donetsk
Look at the posted article. I have no idea “when” Putin said it. Just that he did.When did Putin admit he had military, in Eastern Ukraine?
If one chooses to believe the only expansionist leader on earth other than the Iranian Mullahs, then one can suspend disbelief and do so.When did Putin admit he had military, in Eastern Ukraine?
Also, Putin’s comment in relation to Crimea was explained to me by a Russian speaker, as 'Yes our soldiers already ‘legally’ stationed in Crimea were prepared to back up, if necessary, the self defense groups - but not that he had moved any ‘additional’ soldiers into Crimea.
…to this end our troops did, of course, back up the self-defence groups in Crimea,’ said Putin
I did read the article:I can’t find where he said he had military in Eastern Ukraine, nor have I read it anywhere else.Look at the posted article. I have no idea “when” Putin said it. Just that he did.
The big question, though, is when and how, exactly, he’s going to seize eastern and perhaps southern Ukraine.
Undoubtedly, he’ll declare the May 25 election illegitimate no matter what. He has already said that. But I imagine he will want to stuff the ballots in Eastern Ukraine with more votes than there are people in Eastern Ukraine and demand that they be counted despite the phony vote for “independence” there.
The last thing Putin wants is a stable Ukraine, at least until he has conquered as much of it as he wants.
My guess is, though, that he won’t take all of Ukraine. He’ll leave a piece of it for the West to take care of, without industry, without frackable energy sources, without the best farm land, without a seaport; just a basket case of a state.
My further guess is that he won’t try to kick over the house of cards that is NATO. At some point, even Obama might act, and the U.S. and the Brits have some very serious military people, despite the smallness of the Brit armed forces. They’re small, but very good. Chances are Putin’s 40,000 is the sum and total of the really capable forces he has that’s not tied down shooting Chechens.
It would be interesting if the rump state Putin leaves of Ukraine had its own referendum to join Poland and Lithuania. They used to be one country, after all. But that’s really too much for anyone to hope for, for a number of reasons.
I’m afraid that’s the underlying point to most of this thread - the whole world does know better, this time, as posed through comments made to Western anti-Russian/Putin press releases, etc.If one chooses to believe the only expansionist leader on earth other than the Iranian Mullahs, then one can suspend disbelief and do so.
But the whole world knows better.
World News
02.04.14
Kremlin Analysts Push For Ukraine Annexation
Russian experts have started using loaded WWII-era language to talk about a solution to the ‘Ukrainian Question’ and to advocate controlling parts of the country in a version of USSR 2.0.
As Ukraine’s protests have spiraled into violence over the past month, forcing the prime minister to resign and destabilizing the iron grip of President Viktor Yanukovych, one looming question has hung over the events of the EuroMaidan: What will Putin do?
Indeed, Russia’s relationship with Yanukovych and its perceived meddling in the Ukraine have been at the very heart of the protests from the outset—for it was the president’s decision to snub the EU in favor of closer ties and a $15 billion loan from Moscow that set off angry demonstrations last November.
**Now, Russian politicians and analysts have started using loaded language when talking about what to do with Ukraine and its intractable protesters. Recently, a former advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin, political scientist Andrey Illarionov, opined that Russia is extremely eager to seize Ukrainian territory. According to Illarionov, Moscow’s propaganda machine is running at top speed in order to prepare for such an outcome. He quoted Kremlin sources as saying, “we should wait ‘til the Sochi 2014 Olympics start and then set about finding the solution to the Ukrainian Question.” **
Such wording is not accidental—Illarionov is definitely hinting at the notorious Nazi “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” (Endlösung der Judenfrage) in his speech. World War II-era allusions are widespread among Ukrainian political experts, as well—when local analysts talk about the Russian line of action against Ukraine, they use the word “Anschluss.”
The historical meaning behind the latter German term is being actively promoted as a viable option for dealing with Ukraine by Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Since the Euromaidan started, he’s made lots of ridiculous statements, but his recent ones really take the cake. “We will give Ukraine cartridges but not soldiers,” Zhirinovsky said. “We will send all the Ukrainian refugees to Siberia, that frosty minus-60 degree resort …If [the protesters] hinder you in the East and South of Ukraine, let a local administration appeal to us officially and we will ask the Russian government to rise in defense of Russians in these Ukrainian regions.”
**Illarionov says that there are four likely scenarios for Russia’s plans for Ukraine going forward:
- The establishment of full control of Ukraine with the help of a loyal president. But after the Euromaidan and the large support of its ideas amongst people in the Western and Central regions of the country, this first scenario doesn’t seem probably.
- The federalization or confederalization of Ukraine and establishment of control over the Eastern and Southern regions, where people are loyal to the current government and the percentage of ethnic Russians is relatively high (up to 30 percent).
- If federalization is impossible, the Russian government will likely try to control individual cities in the Eastern and Southern regions such as Odessa, Donetsk, Lugansk and of course the Crimea peninsula.
- If control of the Eastern Ukraine is impossible, Moscow will consider just control of the Crimea and especially Sevastopol city, where the proportion of ethnic Russians is more than 50 percent. **
Illarionov quotes the ideas that are being actively discussed during prime-time on the Russian state TV channels: “Ukraine is a failed state, and the historic chance for reunification of all the Russian lands can be lost in the next couple of weeks, so we mustn’t put off the solution to the Ukrainian Question.”
The strategists from Kremlin are apparently sure that the same scenario was very successful in Georgia, when Abkhazia and South Ossetia were separated and put under Russian protection as “breakaway republics.” The Georgia conflict took place during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which was very convenient timing, as the authors of the new Moscow strategy say.
The information about the aggressiveness of Russia’s designs is not so surprising to Ukrainians, who are already used to politically incorrect statements coming out of Moscow.** In 2008, at the Bucharest NATO Summit, Putin said that “Ukraine is a historical misunderstanding which was created on the Russian territory.” So, in his mind, Russia needs to restore its territory at the expense of Ukraine. “They even don’t say “Ukraine” as a term, using instead the ‘Reunification of Russia’,” Illarionov says.**
The described strategy is very similar to a populist Russian movement called the “Essence of Time,” which was founded in 2011 by Russian politician and scientist Sergey Kurginyan. The goal of the movement is the revival of the USSR on new principles and without the old mistakes. Kurginyan call it “USSR 2.0” and it seems that Ukraine may be the next step on the way to that Brave New World.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
I think we get it. Western reports=lies. Whatever Putin says=the truth. So it really comes down to whether one wants to believe a free press or one who conquers other lands and serves up ways to rationalize aggression.I’m afraid that’s the underlying point to most of this thread - the whole world does know better, this time, as posed through comments made to Western anti-Russian/Putin press releases, etc.
No-one’s buying it this time (well most of the world aren’t). YouTube, forums, Twitter have changed the way people get their news, in addition to the Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya ‘media lies’ that totally put the nail in the coffin…
‘Fool me once - shame on you, Fool me twice/trice - shame on me’.
Not terribly surprising. The relations between the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, even with the Greek Eastern Orthodox and Ukrainian E.O. Churches is not very good. The Russian E.O. claims that none of the others should be in Ukraine at all.The pro-west government of Ukraine has blocked the admission of the Orthodox bishop Hilarion to visit Ukraine. Bishop Hilarion is “a noted theologian, church historian and composer and has published books on dogmatic theology, patristics and church history as well as numerous compositions for choir and orchestra.” “In September 2009, at the invitation of Cardinal Walter Kasper, he visited Pope Benedict XVI and several officials of the Roman Curia who have key roles in Catholic ecumenical dialogue.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilarion_Alfeyev
interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=11245
Wow, I only read a part of it, but this really caught my attention:I recently came across this article about the situation in Ukraine.
Few knew and even fewer cared …** until John Paul II raised his voice with his earth-shattering exhortation “Be not afraid!” This was something of which the Soviets—who ruled through intimidation and fear—were deathly afraid. Encyclicals like Veritatis splendor and Fides et ratio did more to coax people out of the shadowlands of the caves of relativism and fear than any political efforts**—the latter largely focused neither on a proper anthropological understanding of mankind nor of mankind’s place in God’s salvific plan.
Our young family was graced by an already frail John Paul when he visited Ukraine in June 2001. In the western Ukrainian city of L’viv, the Holy Father blessed the cornerstone of the Ukrainian Catholic University, for which Fr. Gudziak was then Rector. We witnessed communists and Russian Orthodox marching hand-in-hand on the streets of the capital, Kyiv, protesting the Pontiff’s visit—spouting some of the most hateful language imaginable. Many times we visited the holiest place of Eastern Orthodoxy—the Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv, currently under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate—where one could readily obtain anti-semitic, anti-Catholic, and anti-Ukrainian tracts. And, in the early morning of April 2, 2005, I had just returned from an end-of-winter climb of Ukraine’s tallest mountain, Hoverla, to learn that the man who brought my wife and I together in Rome was at death’s door. My lasting impression of that day was the tectonic power of the witness of John Paul II’s salvific suffering. II Corinthians 12:9 indeed!
And to think this happened in 2001.This winter, Ukraine emerged from its revolution of dignity—bloodied, but with hopes of a Ukrainian Spring just around the corner. Yet, as weak and exhausted as her people are from years of struggles against corruption and authoritarianism, Ukraine now faces the external threat of a resurgent Putin—a man deathly afraid that the scent of freedom ordered to the true, the good, and the beautiful might “infect” his own people.
Your source is correct, pepipop: Russia had troops stationed in Ukraine long before this recent conflict broke out. They were already in Crimea long before this conflict broke out as part of long standing agreements made with Ukraine over the leasing of Russian Naval Assets in Crimea.When did Putin admit he had military, in Eastern Ukraine?
Also, Putin’s comment in relation to Crimea was explained to me by a Russian speaker, as 'Yes our soldiers already ‘legally’ stationed in Crimea were prepared to back up, if necessary, the self defense groups - but not that he had moved any ‘additional’ soldiers into Crimea.
…to this end our troops did, of course, back up the self-defence groups in Crimea,’ said Putin
These people (separatists) don’t consider themselves Ukrainian, hence, the hostile takeovers and the subsequent intervention of the army, moreover, the Ukraine has a right to protect those whom the Separatists are harming, i.e., these are not innocent protestors but armed and dangerous men who are kidnapping, torturing and killing people with the approval of Mother Russia. Here’s a list of those people that they have harmed (many of which occurred before the army intervened):
Seven killed:
May 9 – (Two killed, one wounded) – Two cars with bodies of two adults, a wife and a husband, were found on the outskirts of Luhansk. According to the Luhansk Prosecutor’s Office, they were gunned by Kremlin-backed insurgents because they did not stop their cars on the militant’s request. Killed couple’s 10-year old daughter was found in one of the cars injured and taken to the hospital.
May 8 – (Killed) – The head of Prosvita society branch in Krasny Lyman, Valeriy Salo, was found burnt in his car. Salo was captured on May 7 by the militants of the Donetsk People’s Republic, according to the Luhansk police press service.
May 8 – (One killed) – Pavlo Zhuchenko, a 44-year-old priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy, was shot near a block post near the eastern Ukrainian town Druzhivka, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office press service. Editor-in-chief of the local news website Ostov, Serhiy Harmash, reports that the slain priest lived next to the block post and urged Kyiv’s opponents to surrender arms. The law enforcement authorities have started an investigation of the case.
April 28 – (Dead) – In Sloviansk, the body was found at the same site near the river Torets, where the bodies of Horlivka Town Council deputy Volodymyr Rybak and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko were found earlier. The body has been identified as Yuriy Diadkovsky, a 25-year-old student from Stryi in Lviv Oblast. Diadkovsky had been an active Euromaidan participant since December 3, 2013. According to the Gazeta.ua website, citing Diadkovsky’s brother Oleh, Yuriy went to Donetsk Oblast on April 16 with his friend in order to see what was going on there. His was kidnapped April 17His body was found 11 days later with the signs of torture.
April 22 – (Two killed) – In Sloviansk, the bodies of two men were found near the river Torets with signs of torture, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. One of them has been identified as Volodymyr Rybak, a Horlivka city councilman believed to have been kidnapped on April 17. He was found with a sandbag tied around his body and a slash across his stomach. He is believed to have drowned in the river while unconscious. According to the ministry’s reports, members of the pro-Russian separatist group who seized the city’s security services building were involved in the alleged torture and murder of the two men. The second men has been identified as a 19-year-old Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko. According to Popravko’s mother, Yaroslava Popravko, cited by Liga.net, on April 16 her son visited his girlfriend in Kharkiv. There was no further contact with him after that.
kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html
Nineteen are still being held
May 9 – (One kidnapped) – Valeriy Andruschuk, head of Mariupol police, was kidnapped by the separatist insurgents the same day as the city police headquarters was stormed and burned down. According to the lawmaker and presidential candidate Oleh Lyashko, Andruschuk was abducted as a retiree tried to take him out of the burning building. The information was confirmed by the Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. A retiree, whose name is unknown, was injured with a knife. Andruschuk’s whereabouts are unknown.
May 8 – (One being held) – Oleh Demko, the representative of presidential candidate and Svoboda Part leader Oleh Tiahnybok in Donetsk region’s Makiyivka, was kidnapped by armed men and taken to the premises of Donetsk regional state administration, according to his party colleague Pavlo Derkachenko. Demko had been receiving threats during a whole week before the abduction.
May 7 – (One kidnapped) – Valeriy Harchuk, member of the local city council in Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast, was kidnapped by four masked men, according to the Luhansk police press office. His whereabouts are unknown.
May 2 – (One held) – Georgian citizen and pro-Ukrainian activist Basile d’Budik was kidnapped by unknown masked and armed men in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka, according to the member of right-wing Svoboda party Maja Karlash. According to the Council to Georgia Irakli Advadze, d’Budik was reached by phone and denied the fact of kidnapping, while his relatives say they do not know activist’s whereabouts. Karlash confirms d’Budik is being held by pro-Russian militants. The head of the territorial defense battalion “Donbas” Semen Senchenko offered separatists’ leaders to exchange nine detained militants for d’Budik and abducted on the same day Mykola Yakubovych.
May 2 (One held) – Mykola Yakubovysch, a Donetsk activist and one of the leaders of the local pro-Ukrainian self-defense, was kidnapped in the center of the city of Donetsk, according to Novosti Donbassa. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.
May 2 (One held) – Ihor Otrya, 18-year old student from Krasnyi Lyman, was kidnapped in Sloviansk on his way home from Kyiv, Gazeta.ua reported. According to Otrya’s parents, their son was detained on suspicion of having connection to nationalist Right Sector organization. He is currently being held by pro-Russian insurgents in the seized SBU building.
April 29 – (Two still held) – Four police officers, including head of the criminal investigation department Vitaliy Benko, Head of the department for combating drug trafficking Oleg Zaitsev, two operational servicemen Andriy Redko and Volodymyr Mischenko, were kidnapped in Kramatorsk by pro-Russian militants after they refused to take separatist’s side, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s press office. They were transported to the regional SBU headquarters in Sloviansk. On May 2, two of them, Redko and Mischenko, were released.
April 29 – (Two still held) – Two members of district election commissions were kidnapped in the Donetsk region. Yaroslav Malanchuk, a member of a district election commission Krasnoarmiysk from the right-wing Svoboda party, and Artem Popyk, head of the local Svoboda organization, were kidnapped in Kostiantynivka.
April 26 – (Still being held) – A Lviv journalist and freelance correspondent for the local ZiK TV-channel Yuriy Leliavsky was captured by pro-Russian militants in Sloviansk during a shooting, according to program director of Telekritika website Viktor Galkin. Leliavsky was taken to the building of the local city council.
April 26 – (One held) – Serhiy Shapoval, a journalist for the Volyn Post, has being missing since April 26 when he decided to head to Sloviansk from Kharkiv, where he was reporting on the local protests. A communication with him was lost at 3 p.m. April 26 and at 9 p.m. same day telephone connection was lost, according to the Telekritika website. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.
April 25 – (Two still held) – Recognized theatre director Pavlo Yurov and art curator Denys Gryschuk were kidnapped in Sloviansk. According to the LB.ua website, citing the friends of the kidnapped men, they were on their way from Donetsk to Kyiv via Sloviansk when they stopped answering phone calls. A self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk Viacheslav Ponomaryov later confirmed holding them hostage.
April 23 – (Still being held) – Sloviansk City Council member Vadym Sukhonos was abducted by Kremlin-backed militants, reports TSN television channel, citing local media in the Donetsk Oblast. Sukhonos apparently was kidnapped for ideological reasons. In February, he quit the Party of Regions, the dominant party in eastern Ukraine, and is now a local independent lawmaker.
kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html
April 21 – (Still being held) – Kramatorsk chief of police, Interior Ministry Colonel Vitaliy Kolupai was kidnapped by Kremlin-backed terrorists, the Interior Ministry reported. The masked pro-Russian militants have apparently demanded weapons and arms in exchange for the police colonel’s release. The Interior Ministry accuses Russian military intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov for commandeering the kidnapping. Ukraine Security Service has identified the Russian colonel as the chief coordinator in the slow-motion Russian invasion of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts by using a combination of Russian special forces and black operatives, a deeply-rooted network of spies and agent saboteurs who are Russians and Ukrainians, and the cooperation of local elements of law enforcement and government officials.
April 20 – (Still being held) – Irma Krat, 29, the editor-in-chief of Hidden Truth TV and the leader of an all-female self-defense unit during the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted the former government and President Viktor Yanukovych, was captured around 8 p.m. on Easter Sunday, Krat’s lawyer, Oleg Veremiyenko, told the Kyiv Post. Krat was “taken hostage,” Veremiyenko said, on suspicion of torturing and killing a Berkut riot police officer. She is reportedly being held in the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk. The day after her capture, the pro-Russian separatist group holding her paraded her to meet the press, during which time she confirmed she was being held but said that she had not been harmed.
April 19 – (Whereabouts unknown) – Local media has reported that Kremlin-backed separatists kidnapped the chief of police in Sloviansk, Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Prokhorov, but officials are yet to officially confirm the abduction. Prokhorov’s whereabouts are unknown.
Released hostages:
May 9 – (Seven released) – Kremlin-backed militants stormed into the Red Cross office in Donetsk and captured seven people, including one citizen of France and six Ukrainians from Kyiv and Donetsk. All of them were freed after several hours of detention, as was confirmed by the local Red Cross official. According to the spokesman of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Red Cross volunteers were detained on suspicion of espionage. Iryna Tsariuk from the Ukrainian Red Cross said one of the released hostages has been severely beaten. It is also reported that insurgents seized medicine, which was delivered to Donetsk Red Cross office for distribution in the region.
May 7 – (One released) – Armed militants kidnapped a man, who took part into the motor rally for the united Ukraine, according to journalist Ekaterina Sergatskova. The abduction took place in Stahaniv, Luhansk Oblast. He was kept in the seized SBU building, tortured and interrogated, and released May 8.
May 4 – (Released) – Pro-Russian militants broke into the house of the member of Novogorodenka (Donetsk Oblast) city council and kidnapped him and five men visiting him, according to the SBU press office. Three of them, a coal miner Oleksandr Vovk, a member of the local city council from the Communist party of Ukraine Oleg Bubich and a member of the local city council from the Party of Regions Valeriy Pavlyk , were released on May 5. Each of them has the signs of torture, according to the press service of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine. Three other, including a coal miner Oleksandr Gurov, a member of the local city council from the Defenders of the Motherland Party Kostyantyn Musiyenko and an unknown man, were released on May 6. While being detained coal miners were constantly beaten and tortured. For instance, militants tried to cut of the words “Glory to Ukraine”, which were tattooed on Gurov’s arm. Gurov claims he was abducted for his strong pro-Ukrainian position.
May 3 – (Released) – Five servicemen of the Armed Forced of Ukraine were kidnapped by masked pro-Russian militants in Melekino village, Donetsk Oblast. They had being detained at the seized Mariupol city council building for several hours and released May 4 at 1 a.m., says SBU press office’s statement.
May 3 – (Released) – Armed men in camouflage kidnapped two persons,Oleksiy Bida and Anna Mokrousova, in Luhansk, kept them in seized regional SBU headquarters for several hours and released afterwards, according to the activists of community Euromaidan SOS.
May 2 (Released) – Three groups of Western journalists from a number of news outlets were briefly detained by pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine, according to Novosti Donbassa. Mike Giglio from American BuzzFeed and his translator Olena Glazunova were taken from a checkpoint en route to Sloviansk by pro-Russian militants, blindfolded, held at seized police building for three hours and released, says Mike Giglio’s on his Twitter. Americans reporters for CBS Clarissa Ward, Erin Lyall, Andy Srevenson, Geoff Mabberley and a team with Britain’s SkyNews Stuart Ramsay, Barnaby Green and their translators Oleg Malko and Oleksandr Pustovit were detained at rebel-held check-points and released after couple hours.
April 29 – (Released) – Five activists were briefly detained by separatists after a pro-Ukrainian rally in Donetsk, reports Novosti Donbassa website citing the organizer of the rally Diana Berg. They were freed later that day, which was confirmed by the local militia’s press office.
kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html
April 18 – (Released) – Sloviansk Mayor Nelya Shtepa disappeared after she attempted to meet with separatist leader Vyacheslav Ponomarev. Initially, Shtepa appeared to support separatists before changing course and confirming her support for authorities in Kyiv. On April 22, she appeared on pro-Kremlin TV Life News saying that she is thankful to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She is believed to be held inside one of the buildings occupied by the separatists in Sloviansk. They have said that she is fine and being fed well. On April 30, Shtepa resigned.
April 16 – (Released) – Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Lefter was kidnapped while reporting on events in Sloviansk. He had being held in the basement of the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk until May 2, when he was released together with another hostage, Sloviansk resident Artem Deynega. Deynega was abducted by pro-Russian insurgents on April 13 after he was observed filming from the balcony of his family’s apartement. The apartment is across the street from the Ukrainian Security Service building in Sloviansk. Lefter was working with the non-governmental organization Open Dialog Foundation when he was captured. Despite been freed on late night May 2 Lefter arrived in Kyiv only five days later as they were hiding in SLoviansk fearing pursuit. During press-conference on May 8 Lefter said that he was treated not that bad during detention and was occasionally questioned, whether he had any connections to nationalist Right Sector organization.
kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html
huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/10/red-cross-hostage-donetsk_n_5300030.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopularKIEV, May 10 (Reuters) - Pro-Russian militants held several Red Cross workers hostage for seven hours in the rebel eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, severely beating one before freeing them in Saturday’s early hours, a local Red Cross official said.