Ukraine Relaunches Operation against Rebels, Military Plane Hit by Gunfire

Ukraine's acting president on Tuesday ordered the military to resume an operation against pro-Kremlin separatists, after the "brutally tortured" bodies of two people, one a kidnapped local councilor, were discovered in the restive east.

"I demand the resumption of effective counter-terrorism measures to protect Ukrainian citizens in the east from terrorism," Oleksandr Turchynov said, according to a statement from his other office as parliamentary speaker.

The announcement came hours after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden left Kiev at the end of a two-day visit during which he voiced strong U.S. support for Ukraine's leaders, and warned Russia against further "provocative behavior" in the former Soviet republic.

Turchynov had earlier Tuesday declared that the rebels' refusal to comply with an accord agreed last week by Kiev, Moscow and the West "puts a cross" through it.

He said the bodies of two people were found in the rebel-held town of Slavyansk on Tuesday, both bearing signs of torture.

One of them, he said, was that of Volodymyr Rybak, a councilor in the town of Gorlivka, "who was kidnapped recently by the terrorists."

Rybak was a local member of the pro-Western party led by Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister who is a leading candidate in a presidential election to be held in Ukraine May 25. Turchynov is a member of the same party.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Ukrainian military surveillance plane was hit and damaged by small arms fire as it was on a reconnaissance flight over the rebel-held eastern town of Slavyansk, the defense ministry said.

The plane, a propeller-driven Antonov An-30, safely made an emergency landing, a ministry spokesman told Agence France Presse. None of its crew members was hurt.

"Thanks to the professional actions, military pilots managed to land the plane at the airfield without consequences," the ministry said in a statement. "After a thorough examination and diagnosis, aircraft combat capability was fully restored."

The attack occurred just hours after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden left Ukraine's capital at the end of a two-day visit pledging Washington's support to Kiev's fledgling leaders.

The Ukrainian government and the United States see Russia as fueling the separatist crisis, pushing East-West relations to their most critical point since the Cold War.

Pro-Kremlin rebels holding Slavyansk and a string of other eastern towns are ignoring a Geneva agreement between the Ukraine, Russia and the West to lay down their weapons and surrender occupied public buildings.