[Osem]

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have seized a bus carrying international military observers, Ukraine's interior ministry says.

Negotiations were under way to secure the release of the observers, seized near the town of Sloviansk, it added.

Western leaders earlier announced they were debating fresh sanctions against Russia over its alleged failure to help de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine.

Russia has accused the West of wanting to "seize" Ukraine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27162941

Russia's foreign currency ratings were cut on Friday by the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor to one notch above "junk" status.

Meanwhile:

Day by day the language of diplomacy is being replaced by words of confrontation and recrimination, as the US and Russia manoeuvre in the escalating crisis over the future of Ukraine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27162158

"Having failed to postpone Ukraine's elections, having failed to halt a legitimate political process, Russia has instead chosen an illegitimate course of armed violence to try and achieve with the barrel of a gun and the force of a mob what couldn't be achieved any other way," Mr Kerry said.

The US secretary of state went on to describe Russia's action as a "full-throated effort to sabotage the democratic process."

Not since the Cold War ended more than 20 years ago, have such angry words been fired at the Kremlin by the state department.