Pro-Russian militants in Eastern Ukraine are denying claims the Ukrainian troops swept gunmen out of the government and police buildings in at least one town where separatists have clamored and demanded independence from Kiev.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry insists that Svyatogorsk is once again under government control.  That claim was quickly dismissed as “a propaganda lie” by a leader of insurgents holding nearby Slovyansk, a pro-Russian militant who has declared himself the new “mayor”.  Vyacheslav Ponomaryov is confirming that his armed group is holding ten hostages.

“These Ukrainian guys and this American are not really journalists but provocateurs, and they will stay here until we exchange them for our comrades put in prison by the illegal government in Kiev,” said Ponomaryov, “I am warning that if we are attacked none of (the hostages) survives.”

Ponomaryov says he is willing to trade US journalist Simon Ostrovsky, a reporter for “Vice News”, for Pavel Gubarev, the jailed leader of the separatist forces in the neighboring Donetsk region.

In nother development from the Ukraine Crisis:  The first group of 150 US Troops has arrived in Poland for military exercises.  Some 600 Americans will take part.