Pro-Russian separatists have until tomorrow morning to disarm and walk away from the government and police offices they’ve occupied in the Eastern Ukraine, or face a “full-scale anti-terrorist operation” by Ukraine’s armed forces.  If an armed confrontation does go down, Kiev risks a military confrontation with Russian forces poised over its eastern border.

"The National Security and Defense Council has decided to launch a full-scale anti-terrorist operation involving the armed forces of Ukraine," acting President Oleksander Turchinov said in an address to the nation, blaming Moscow for the trouble.  Moscow responded by telling the Western powers they must lean on Kiev to prevent a civil war in Ukraine.

America’s United Nations Ambassador Samantha Powers the latest events in Ukraine bore “the telltale signs of Moscow's involvement,” and that further sectoral economic sanctions on Russia’s “energy, banking, mining could be on the table, and there's a lot in between.”

The militants killed a state security officer and two others in the flashpoint eastern city of Slaviansk, which were the acts that officially ended Kiev’s patience.