Four-way Ukraine talks announced

Kiev: Ukraine said on Wednesday that pro-Russian militants had freed 56 “hostages” after US and EU diplomats set up their first direct talks with Moscow and Kiev aimed at resolving the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said the group walked free from its headquarters in Lugansk after separatists seized the building and other key government offices at the weekend in the mainly Russian speaking eastern industrial heartland.

The separatist raids have drawn Western charges that Russia its troops already massed along Ukraine’s border in response to its ouster of a Moscow-backed regime is backing the separatists and plotting to grab more territory from embattled Ukraine after annexing Crimea last month.