Pro-Russian separatists on Sunday seized control of the offices of regional state television in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a Reuters reporter outside the building said.
The reporter said four separatists in masks, with truncheons and shields, were standing at the entrance to the building controlling access, while more separatists in camouflage fatigues could be seen inside.
Earlier, the leader of the international observers detained by pro-Russian separatists in the east Ukrainian city of Slaviansk said all the group were in good health, but they were anxious to be allowed to go home soon.
Appearing in public for the first time since they were held three days ago, seven officers from the observer team and their translator were brought into a room of waiting journalists in the separatist-held city administration building.
Guards in camouflage fatigues and balaclavas, carrying Kalashnikov rifles, were also in the room as journalists spoke to the observers, who were in Ukraine under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Colonel Axel Schneider, who was leading the observer mission, said the group came to Slaviansk without weapons and were there strictly in line with their mandate under OSCE rules, to carry out military verification work.
"We were accommodated in a cellar. We had to set up conditions for ourselves," said Schneider, describing what happened after they were seized. "Since yesterday we've been in a more comfortable room with heating. We have daylight, and an air conditioner."
Schneider, who had a shaven head, a closely-cropped beard and was wearing a plaid button-down shirt, told reporters he had "not been touched," and that there had been no physical mistreatment of the group.
The group sat side by side at a long table in front of the reporters, looking somber and serious, but otherwise well.
He said the separatist de factor mayor of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, had guaranteed the group's safety. He said he believed the mayor's promise.
Ponomaryov appeared with the detained men at the news conference.
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A fresh round of sanctions on Russia will be an extension of existing measures including travel bans and asset freezes on individuals, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday.
Europe and the United States are also working on more far reaching measures of economic, trade and financial sanctions but these would be for possible future rather than immediate implementation, he said.
"We will go ahead with additional sanctions, the costs for Russia will rise," Hague told Sky News.
"What we will hear about in the coming days, what we will agree ... is an expansion of existing sanctions, measures against individuals or entities in Russia."
REUTERS