wipe out the city and its residents. frightening. on russia s side there are 40,000 troops conducting military exercises. group of european observers are in the hands of pro-russian gunmen. we want to bring in retired u.s. army general james spider marks. thank you for being with us. my pleasure. in this situation, do you see any way to avoid some sort of military confrontation? well, christi, the military confrontation is already taking place. kiev has an obligation to maintain peace, order, control, in all of its sovereign territory and slaviansk and dou donetsk. the president is correct. i challenge him, putin is raising a finger and raising a finger to instigate the violence and the chaos that you see in
well, kate, troubling this morning, two separate explosi explosions. one far to the west of where i m standing at a police standpoint seems to have been caused by an explosive device and here near where i m standing in do innocence and kramatorsk. we understand from a spokesperson for the ukrainian military a grenade was fired blowing up a helicopter there. despite the fact that no one was injured in either incident we are still seeing an area here extraordinary close to open conflict. tensions flaring in ukraine as the region teeters on the brink of war. bloody, fiery crashes erupting as the ukrainian military moves to reclaim cities taken by pro-russian militants, killing five of them, they say, and destroying three checkpoints around the eastern soun of slaviansk. they say it as a direct threat to russia warning of immediate
says one ukrainian politician not only found dead, but he was found dead after being tortured and drowned. so what s the latest on that? because that s clearly escalating tensions. reporter: he was found in the river close to slaviansk. his body had seemingly been mutilated. he had been weighed down by sandbags. his one of two bodies found. the second one still remains unidentified. he had gone missing after a rally on the 17th where he got into an argument with some of the pro-russian protesters. both sides are blaming each other for this. the ukrainian government, as you said, blaming the pro-russian protesters, but the self-proclaimed mayor of slaviansk saying no, it was not us. he was never detained by my people, all the results of the ukrainian nationalists. you once again have this family s tragedy caught up in
eastern ukraine. that comes as u.s. president president obama is warning of new sanctions against russia if moscow continues to violate ukraine s sovereignty. cnn s correspondent jim sciutto has our report. reporter: kiev, counteroffensive in eastern ukraine stalled just as it started. in slaviansk, pro-russians stormed the area, waving the russian flag. they blocked the armored vehicles rolling into that city. ukraine s defense ministry later forced to admit the vehicles had been seized by pro-russian militants. even as it faltered, russia s foreign minister called the crackdown illegal. we ll ease the situation and make it so that the government in kiev views with respect the demands of ukrainian citizens who live in the east.
missing, most of the passengers on the ship were high school students. maritime engineers are analyzing data from an underwater vehicle in the search for an oil sample from flight 370. they completed the first full mapping session today. the oil sample was taken from a slick inside the search zone. pro-russian protesters are celebrating in several cities in eastern ukraine, they saw the convoy of vehicles and paraded them through the streets of slaviansk. the russian and ukraine leaders are set to meet in geneva today to discuss the situation. and the nigerian military says that eight school girls are still missing following the abductions by a militant group. most of the girls kidnapped have been freed. rescue crews are looking for the attackers in a dense forest. officials say one suspect has