Merkel asks Putin's help in freeing European hostages in Ukraine [View all]

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Source: LA Times

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to urge him to use his influence with pro-Russia militants holding seven European military observers hostage in eastern Ukraine, official sources in Berlin and Moscow said.

But the Kremlin press service account of the phone call said Putin told Merkel that "the main thing" that needs to be done is for Ukraine's interim government to withdraw its forces from the southeast regions of the country.

Putin also said officials in Kiev needed to "stop the violence and immediately open a broad national dialogue" on constitutional changes that would transfer authority from the Ukrainian capital to the regions. The latter demand has been pressed repeatedly by the Kremlin in the month since its allied militants have occupied about a dozen towns and cities in eastern Ukraine, ostensibly to defend the interests of the region's Russian minority.

Masked and armed militants who seized the town of Slovyansk last month and declared the area part of the "People's Republic of Donetsk" detained a delegation of military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Friday as the group attempted to enter the town on a mission on behalf of the 57-nation group, which includes Ukraine and Russia.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-wn-ukraine-russia-tensions-20140501,0,1819060.story