Pro-Russian militia capture TV station, parade hostages in Ukraine

Pro-Russian militia seized control of TV station in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk.

The separatists forcibly switched off Ukranian channels and broadcasted Russian channels that exclusively show and opinionate pro-Kremlin views.

With no police intervention, pro-Russian separatists masked and armed with baseball bats,streamed into the regional televsion centre.

Oleg Dzholos, the director of the TV station said that the separatists had brought with them a technician who was turning off Kiev television and replacing it with Rossiya 24. However, the channel hopes to continue functioning despite these disturbances.

According to the Guardian, the seizure of the TV station is another blow to Kiev, which has struggled to assert its authority in the east, amid an insurrection that it says is plotted by Moscow. The capture of the TV tower appears to be part of an unfolding plan to shut out information critical of Moscow and replace it with Kremlin propaganda, it revealed.

In Slavynsk, military observers had appeared for the first time after their kidnapping, taking part in the staged media conference by Vyacheslav Ponomarev.