EXPLOSION at AIRPORT in Eastern UKRAINE Blamed on PRO - RUSSIA MILITANTS. World on Brink of WW3 ?

An airport in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine was attacked on Friday.

An explosion at Kramatorsk airport destroyed a military helicopter and surveillance airplane according to the owner of the airfield.

Ukranian authorities said it was an "act of sabotage" by pro-Russian separatists. Ukrainian army troops had taken back control of the airport last week after it was occupied by militiamen.

Some 100 kilometres away in Slovyansk, the self-proclaimed mayor admitted separatists may be holding a group of OSCE monitors.

"The sign OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) does not mean protection for an officer of the (army) General Headquarters. We found an employee of the army headquarters. After an investigation we will decide what we are to do," Vyacheslav Ponomaryov said.

The Ukrainian government said it had ruled out an assault on Slovyansk to avoid casualties.

On Friday in South Korea, President Obama promised tougher sanctions against Russia if Vladimir Putin doesn't back down and move out of Ukraine:

"President Putin is not a stupid man. There's going to come a point when he's going to have to make a fundamental decision. Is he willing to see an economy already faltered weaken further, or is he going to use military force and the kind of destabilizing activities that we see so far?" With tensions escalating every day in the eastern city of Slovyansk, pro-Russian militants block government buildings, waving banners that read "USA" and "EU GO HOME!"

But it is Ukrainians guarding the airport in Kramatorsk. After an explosion, Ukrainians say Russian rockets blew up a military helicopter and surveillance airplane.

On Ukrainian newscasts, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk urged citizens to stand united against Russia, saying the Pope and the rest of the world stand with them. He also accused Russia of wanting to start World War III and insisted Ukrainians needed to be the ones to take on the Russians directly:

Lubkivsky said 20 members in total had been taken, and called the incident shocking and unprecedented.

Danylo Lubkivsky, Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, also swore that he would 'protect our motherland', hours after the prime minister of Ukraine accused Russia of trying 'to start World War Three'.

Response: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, pictured shaking hands with John Kerry earlier this month, has said the West is trying to control Ukraine to serve their own political ambitions

Build-up: Russian military helicopters are seen in a field outside the village of Severny near the Russian-Ukrainian Fleet: Russian armoured vehicles drive into the city of Belgorod as tensions in the area increase

The US and key allies in Europe have agreed that Russia failed to live up to the terms of the Ukraine peace accord, and would coordinate on a response to 'impose costs' on Russia, according to the White House.

Ukraine crisis: Helicopter gunship blown up and international observers held by gunmen as violence escalates

The last time the Russian "Doomsday Plane" was seen in the air doing its trademark loops at 27,000 feet telegraphing Vladimir Putin was somewhere nearby, was on March 31, just days after the formerly Ukrainian region was annexed by the Kremlin. Until today, when over the past 4 hours, the Tu-214 has been quietly circling in position just shy of Finland and the Baltics, where as it is known, NATO has been depositing hundreds of western soldiers in a "defensive" build up. What is the "Doomsday Plane"? Here is a reminder: The Tupolev Tu-214SR is a Russian Special Mission Aircraft believed to act as a communication relay aircraft. This kind of aircraft is often dispatched by the Russian Air Force to accompany Putin's presidential aircraft on its travels and for this reason it is considered the Russian version of the U.S. E-4B, a so-called "doomsday" plane, with an airborne command and control role. we the people civil war syria israel