of Russian citizenship to citizens of the countries formerly comprising the Soviet Union. 22 April Russian-born American-Israeli journalist Simon Ostrovsky is reportedly abducted in Sloviansk by the militia of the separatist pro-Russian leader Vyacheslav Ponomarev. Russian political activist Alexei Navalny is ordered to pay 300,000 rubles (US$8,400) in a libel suit by a municipal deputy who Navalny called a drug addict. 23 April 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: Ukrainian security officials discover that the Assumption Monastery Lavra of the Moscow Patriarchate in Sviatohirsk served as a military base for pro-Russian insurgents who have besieged the region. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema announces that pro-Russian militants will be targeted in four eastern cities, Kramatorsk, Slaviansk, Donetsk and Luhansk, as they refuse to vacate government buildings they previously seized, defying the international deal made in Geneva. 24 April 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: The Ukrainian government says it's regained control of the city hall in the eastern port of Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists. Administrative buildings have been taken over in at least a dozen towns in Eastern Ukraine. Washington accuses Moscow of fomenting unrest in the east, with Obama threatening the possibility of applying additional sanctions on Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accuses the United States of being behind the political upheaval in Ukraine, and said Russia would respond if its interests came under attack. A battle between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops in Sloviansk, Ukraine, leaves 5 pro-Russian militants dead. 25 April – A Ukrainian military helicopter is destroyed after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade at a base near the town of Kramatorsk in Eastern Ukraine. 27 April Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine free a Swedish observer, but not the other seven European monitors they have been holding for three days. Eight people are killed by a fire in a medical facility in Russia's eastern Altai region. 28 April 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: Pro-Russian gunmen seize the town of Kostyantynivka, the latest in a string of towns in the eastern Ukraine. The United States imposes a third round of sanctions against Russia, reportedly in response to Russia encouraging rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Two thousand people holding a peaceful demonstration in Donetsk for a united Ukraine are attacked with bats and teargas by pro-Russians. 29 April – Pro-Russian militants in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk seize the regional administration's headquarters, resulting in a tense standoff with the militants