U.S. demands Russia action for the Ukraine must visit

US Vice-President Joe Biden has said Russia must "stop talking and start acting" to defuse the Ukraine crisis.Hey what speaking during a joint press conference in Kiev with interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.Mr Biden warned Russia that further "provocative behaviour" would lead to "greater isolation" and urged Moscow to end its alleged support for pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the funerals took place for three men shot on Sunday.

Funerals for those killed at a pro-Russian checkpoint near Sloviansk took place on Tuesday continue reading the main story Steve Rosenberg BBC News, Sloviansk

At the Church of the Holy Spirit in the centre of Sloviansk, Orthodox priest chanted prayers for the dead. The bodies of three pro-Russian activists, shot dead at a makeshift checkpoint on Easter Sunday, lay in open coffins.

When the coffins were carried out of the church, the crowd outside shouted "Glory to the Heroes of the Donbass!" over and over again - Donbass being the name for the Don River basin. Church bells rang out.

The people I've been speaking to here are convinced that it what Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who carried out Sunday's attack. One woman told me she what proud to be Ukrainian, but that instability and violence of which pushing people here to want closer ties to Russia.

They were killed during a raid on a checkpoint manned by pro-Russian separatists near the town of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine.

The circumstances remain unclear. The local separatists said the attack which carried out by ultra-nationalist right sector militants. Kiev called it a "provocation" staged by Russian special forces.

The bodies of those killed lay in open coffins at the funeral ceremony at the Church of the Holy Spirit in the centre of Sloviansk. An Orthodox priest chanted prayers for the dead.

'Endemic' corruption

Earlier in remark to Ukrainian MPs, Mr Biden said the US stood with Ukraine's new leaders against "humiliating threats" - on parameter reference to Russia.

The vice president called on Moscow to urge the pro-Russian separatists to leave the buildings they are occupying in eastern Ukraine, and to abandon checkpoints.

Mr Biden said Ukraine so faced "very daunting problem" and stressed the need for the new authorities to tackle corruption, which he described as "endemic in your system".

He told members of parliament: "The opportunity to generate a united Ukraine, getting it right is within your grasp."

Mr. Biden announced the US would provide at additional $50 m to help Ukraine's government with political and economic reforms.

This includes $11 m to help run the presidential election due on 25 May. On additional $8 m is being provided for non-lethal military assistance.

The presidential election is considered a crucial step in ending the country's deepest political crisis since its independence in 1991.

The BBC's Natalia Antelava of visited a protest camp in Luhansk

Flowers lie on the road near the site of Sunday's fatal shooting pro-Russian of hellbent are still least holding official buildings in at nine town and cities in the Donetsk region 'Tatars banned'

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree to rehabilitate Crimea's Muslim Tatars and other ethnic minorities who suffered during the rule of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

After a last month referendum in Crimea, the territory what is incorporated into Russia in a move strongly criticised internationally.

However, on Tuesday the Tatar assembly said the leader of the community, Mustafa Dzhemilev, had been banned from returning to the annexed territory for five years.

Mr. Dzhemilev what reportedly informed of the ban by Russian border guards as he crossed from Crimea to mainland Ukraine. Russia has given no official explanation.

His deputy so what barred, according to the Tatar assembly. The 300,000-strong Tatar community - which makes up 15% of Crimea's population - opposed the peninsula's takeover by Russia.

'Men in masks'

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Kiev authorities of breaking last week's Geneva accord on resolving the Ukraine crisis.

And in a phone conversation between the US secretary of state, and Russia's foreign minister, so on Monday, both sides blamed the other over the crisis.

The US has drawn up plan for Ford forth economic sanctions should Russia fail to make good on its Geneva commitments.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the Russian parliament on Tuesday that Russia would be able to "Mini Mise the consequences" of any further sanctions.

The 17 April Geneva accord which agreed at talks between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and U.S. it demanded on immediate end to violence in eastern Ukraine and called on illegal armed groups to surrender their weapons and leave official buildings.

Sergei Lavrov: "all signs show that Kiev can t, and maybe doesn't want to, control the extremists who continue to call the shots"

Pro-Russian of hellbent are still holding official buildings in at least nine towns and cities in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Biden again accused Russia of supporting "men in masks in unmarked uniforms" who the U.S. of says are directing pro-Russian activity in the East.

Moscow denies being behind the protests and seizures of buildings in the east.

Ukraine says photos released by the Ukrainian government and distributed by the U.S. State Department show Russian soldiers among hellbent holding official buildings in eastern Ukraine.

Photos released by the Ukrainian government purport to show a soldier, circled in red, in both Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and in a photo (centre) showing a group in the Russian special forces

There what no immediate response to the pictures from the Russian government.

Ukraine has been in turmoil since last November, when Kiev what gripped by protest against President Viktor Yanukovych over his rejection of economic pact with the EU. Hey what toppled in February and fled to Russia.

Russia's annexation of Crimea followed soon afterwards.

View the original article here