Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said on Wednesday they would consider Russian President Vladimir Putin's call to postpone a regional referendum on independence at a meeting of their assembly tomorrow.
"Tomorrow we will discuss that at the people's assembly," Denis Pushilin, a leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, told Reuters. "We have the utmost respect for President Putin. If he considers that necessary, we will of course discuss it."
Russian President Vladimir Putin called on separatists in east Ukraine to postpone a May 11 referendum on the status of the mostly Russian-speaking region.
Putin spoke after talks with the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who said the security and rights body would soon propose a "road map" to defuse the Ukraine crisis.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media said that Ukrainian forces have retaken city hall in the eastern port of Mariupol after heavy fighting with pro-Russian militants overnight.
Ukraine's Channel 5 television said the National Guard had seized the building, forcing rebels into the streets, where they blocked the main thoroughfare, burning tires and a trolleybus. By Wednesday morning, traffic could again move.
The report could not be immediately confirmed.
On another note, Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko urged Europe and the United States to agree on a third wave of sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin supports a referendum organized by separatists in eastern Ukraine on May 11.
"If Russia will support this referendum we need absolutely agreed action about the third wave of sanctions, well coordinated between the United States of America and the European Union," Poroshenko told reporters in Berlin shortly before meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Separatists in the Donbass region say they will hold a referendum on secession on Sunday, similar to the one that preceded Russia's annexation of Crimea in March.
NATO
NATO's Secretary General Anders Rasmussen called on Russia to stop supporting separatists in Ukraine and scale back troops from Ukraine's border to create a base for political solution to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Speaking after a meeting with Polish foreign and defense ministers, Rasmussen said NATO was not able to confirm a withdrawal of Russian troops.
"Russia should live up to its international commitments and stop supporting separatists and scale back troops from the border, so political solutions can be found," he told reporters in Warsaw.
Rasmussen added, that if necessary NATO will not hesitate to take all necessary steps to increase the security of its allies in central and eastern Europe, which may include reinforced excercises, reviewed defence plans and a proper deployment of troops.
Earlier, a NATO military official said that NATO has no indication that Russia has withdrawn its forces from close to the Ukraine border despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that they had returned to their training areas.
"We have no indication of a change in the position of military forces along the Ukraine border," the official told Reuters.
President Vladimir Putin said troops have been pulled back to training grounds and locations for "regular exercises," but didn't specify whether those locations were in areas near Ukraine.
Russia's Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to discuss a way out of the Ukrainian crisis with the head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
"I know that you have your own proposals, your ideas of how to find a way out of the situation in Ukraine that has occurred. Our position is known too," Putin said ahead of talks with Didier Burkhalter, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for 2014 and Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
"Let's try to analyze the situation and seek ways out of this crisis." Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Kiev to immediately stop "the use of force against its own people".
"The illegitimate authorities in Kiev go on crudely trampling on widely-recognized rights, with the connivance of their Western patrons," the ministry also said in a statement.
International positions
A spokeswoman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's government said Germany is involved in international efforts to stop an escalation of the crisis in Ukraine through a follow-up process to last month's Geneva agreement.
Asked about Ukraine's use of force to fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, a German foreign ministry spokesman said that Ukraine had the right to defend its sovereignty.
For its part, the European Union called on Russia to avoid worsening the crisis in Ukraine or face further sanctions.
Meanwhile, US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said Washington hopes Russia will change its tune on Ukraine and is working with others to ensure that sanctions will cost Moscow dearly if it does not.
The United States and European countries all agreed that the principle of having to sanction Russia was more important than the inevitable collateral impact on U.S. or EU business, Cohen said.
The Obama administration is working on new sanctions that would be imposed on Russia should it dramatically ramp up aggression against Ukraine through measures such as preventing elections from taking place in much of the country or recognizing another separatist referendum.
IMF
Ukraine has received a first tranche worth about $3.2 billion from a $17 billion two-year aid program from the International Monetary Fund, the central bank said on Wednesday.
The bank said the first tranche was received on Tuesday. More than $1 billion went to the bank's foreign currency reserves and the rest to the state budget, a spokesman said.
REUTERS