Ukrainian government troops have briefly recaptured the rebel-held city hall in Mariupol, before quickly abandoning it. Separatists then retook the building.<br /><br />A week of violence, which has seen more than 40 people killed in clashes that ended with pro-Russian demonstrators trapped inside a building, has hardened positions and spread the unrest.<br /><br />Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko said: “For those who do not understand neither Ukrainian nor Russian, no German, no English, we should find out the language they understand. For those people who [are] keeping the machine gun, for those people who [are] killing the people, for those people who are terrorists – we should find out the right language they understand and that would be the language of force.”<br /><br />Meanwhile in the rebel stronghold of Slavyansk, around two hundred people gathered to pay their respects to 30-year-old teacher Irina Boevets who was shot dead on Monday.<br /><br />Locals say she was killed by a Ukrainian sniper.<br /><br />Olga Tigunova, a friend of Irina, explained: “She stepped onto her balcony and waved at her husband who was nearly home. She was about to go back inside when a bullet hit her temple and went through her head.”<br /><br />Meanwhile Pavel Gubarev, the self-declared People’s Governor of Donetsk Region, has been released with others in exchange for three Ukrainian special forces officers. <br /><br />A spokesman at the separatists’ headquarters in Slavyansk said, “it was a swap of hostages for prisoners of war.”
