Kula Lumpur / Slaviansk: In Ukraine, Pro-Russian rebels are reported to have freed a Swedish observer and at the same time said that they have no intention to release seven European monitors whom they have been holding for few days.
On the eve of an expected announcement for tightening Western sanctions against Russia, the US President Barack Obama has called the United States and Europe to join forces to impose stronger measures to suppress Moscow.
In Donetsk, pro-Russian rebels have declared seized the headquarters of regional television and ordered it to start broadcasting Russian state TV channel.
Washington and Brussels have yet to reach an agreement on imposing wider sanctions that would hurt Russia’s economy more generally.
Obama said during his visit to Malaysia that the impact of any decision over wider sanctions would depend on whether the United States and its allies could find a unified position.
Obama said reporters that they are moving stronger and expected Mr. Putin to view a unified United States and Europe rather than considering the matter as a US-Russian conflict.
The stand of US over Ukraine, the ex-Soviet republic of about 45 million people, has transformed the relations between Russia and the West to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

Video on the release of Swedish hostage