Internal Security News:

• Unrest continued in eastern Ukraine. Pro-Russian militants seized the Alchevsk city council building in Luhansk. Militants also took over the government tax collection office and eastern customs office in Donetsk and kidnapped a Donetsk Electoral Commission member. In Horlivka, armed pro-Russian men stormed a city council building.

• (Interfax Ukraine) Ukrainian armed forces were placed on combat alert due to the threat of Russian hostilities said Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine’s acting president.

• In a meeting with regional governors, acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov said that the country is "helpless" to quell pro-Russian separatist movements in the east.

• The Ukrainian State Guard Department planned to hold special tactical exercises in central Kiev overnight.

• A poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that a majority of Donetsk residents think the interim government is illegitimate.

Constitutional Reform News:

• Ukraine’s Central Elections Committee stated that only parliament can schedule a referendum on the territory issue.

International Observation News:

• (ITAR-TASS) A German Foreign Ministry spokesman stated that negotiations with those holding OSCE members hostage in Sloviansk are difficult as “there is still no direct contact.”
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• (Interfax Ukraine) Austria’s Foreign Minister said that Austria hopes the OSCE hostages will be released “without any additional conditions.”

Diplomacy News:

• (ITAR-TASS) German Chancellor Merkel stated that further sanctions against Russia could be imposed if the situation with Ukraine does not de-escalate.
   
• European Council President Herman Van Rompuy stated that the Ukrainian government has taken a number of steps to fulfill its obligations as part of the Geneva accords.
• (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia stated that he hopes to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the release of OSCE military observers detained in eastern Ukraine.

• (RIA Novosti) Russian President Putin and Italian PM Renzi discussed Ukraine in a phone call.

Governance News:

• The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers appointed Ivan Rusnak as deputy defense minister.

• (ITAR-TASS) The Party of Regions called for the removal of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov from an investigation into the attempted assassination of Kharkiv’s mayor, citing known hostility between the two.