Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
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 MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Thursday that Ukraine must remove its military from the southeastern region of the country to resolve the showdown there with pro-Russian militants who have seized several official buildings, the Kremlin said. 
  
 “Putin emphasized that it was imperative today to withdraw all military units from the southeastern regions, stop the violence and immediately launch a broad national dialogue as part of the constitutional reform process involving all regions and political forces,” the Russian government said in a statement. 
  
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 Early Friday, separatist forces in Slovyansk reported that the city was attacked by Ukrainian government forces. A separatist commander reported that a Ukrainian military helicopter had been shot down on the southern side of the city and that a checkpoint had been attacked. 
  
 The commander also said that his forces had sustained casualties. His account could not immediately be confirmed. Church bells rang in the center of Slovyansk on Friday morning, but otherwise it was quiet. 
  
 Russia had repeatedly accused Ukraine of escalating the situation, saying the government in Kiev has deployed 11,000 soldiers in the region. The acting Ukrainian president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, said Wednesday that the security services had lost control of the region to armed separatists who had seized government buildings in about a dozen towns. 
  
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 On Thursday, Mr. Turchynov issued a decree reinstating military conscription, saying men 18 and older who had not turned 25 would be drafted. The decree, which is unlikely to have any immediate effect on Kiev’s efforts to bolster security, said the move was intended to halt the deterioration of public order, prevent the seizure of more state buildings and maintain the armed forces — estimated nationally to total no more than 70,000 men — in “the highest state of readiness for combat.” It did not specify the length of service. 
  
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 Christiane Wirtz, a spokeswoman for the German chancellor, did not address Mr. Putin’s comments, but she said Ms. Merkel had urged him to intervene in the case of seven military monitors, including four German soldiers, affiliated with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are being held hostage by a separatist mayor in the pro-Russian stronghold of Slovyansk. 
  
 “The chancellor reminded President Putin of Russia’s responsibility as a member of the O.S.C.E. and called on the president to use his influence,” Ms. Wirtz said in a statement. The conversation was initiated by Ms. Merkel, the Kremlin said. 
  
 In a report from the Russian news agency Interfax, the pro-Russian movement in Slovyansk said it had freed two of three captured members of the Ukrainian security services in exchange for the release of an unspecified number of its own activists. The report could not be confirmed by independent sources. In a video posted online this week, the three men were shown beaten and bloodied wearing nothing more than their shirts and underwear, with blood oozing from behind the duct tape covering their eyes. 
  
 In a sign of the continuing insecurity in the southeast, the Ukrainian National Information Agency said pro-Russian militants seized a police station and the state prosecutor’s office in Donetsk on Thursday. The Ukrainian flag on the prosecutor’s office was hauled down and burned as several hundred people waving Russian and even Soviet flags gathered nearby, the agency reported. 
  
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 Russia and the separatists have denied that they are working together, and Mr. Putin has said there are no Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. He made similar claims during the annexation of Crimea, however, and then later acknowledged the existence of a Russian operation. 
  
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 The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sought to pressure Kiev, issuing not one but two statements on the same day. 
  
 The first condemned Ukraine for scheduling a presidential election and a referendum on decentralization for May 25 while military operations continued in the east. The second said Moscow was “extremely concerned” about news reports that the Ukrainian government intended to use its military in a special operation in the southeast. It said Kiev should “not commit criminal mistakes” and “soberly assess the gravity of the possible consequences of using force against the Ukrainian people.” 
  
 Details of the conversation between Mr. Putin and Ms. Merkel emerged shortly after Russian news agencies reported the start of what were described as training maneuvers by a newly formed Russian attack helicopter unit near the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia. The deployment could crank up tensions with NATO, which has stationed extra fighter jets to reassure jittery former Soviet republics that worry about Russia’s ambitions. 
  
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 Thursday was May Day, and in Moscow tens of thousands of people gathered in Red Square to mark the celebration of workers. News announcers crowed that it was the first time the celebration had been held in the square since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, after which the Kremlin studiously kept any activity with political overtones out of there. The day is still a main event for labor unions and the Communist Party. 
  
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 The return to the square fit neatly with President Putin’s concerted attempts to burnish the Soviet past, and the speakers and many marchers lauded the annexation of Crimea in March. The bigger annual celebration, with a thundering military parade and a speech by Mr. Putin, has been moved to May 9, Victory Day, which this year is the 69th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. 
  
 The interim authorities in Kiev were reported on Thursday to have ordered the expulsion of a naval attaché at Moscow’s embassy, accusing him of “activities incompatible with diplomatic status,” a term that normally denotes espionage, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. 
  
 There was no immediate response from Russia to the Ukrainian move. ||||| DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Ukraine should withdraw its military from the eastern and southern regions of the country, a statement that could bolster anti-government insurgents who are seizing buildings. 
  
 Pro Russian activists are seen in a tear gas cloud while throwing rocks at the prosecutor building, after a pro Russia demonstration during International Worker's Day in Donestsk, Ukraine, Thursday, May... (Associated Press) 
  
 An elderly man marches in front of an amateur band while local citizens gather to mark May Day in Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Russian state news media were quick to dismiss the... (Associated Press) 
  
 Workers weep during a May Day rally to pay tribute to the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 1, 2014. An off-duty captain of the sunken South Korean ferry has told... (Associated Press) 
  
 A Pro-Russian activist, right, speaks with police officers during clashes in front of the regional administration building in Donetsk, Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Anti-government demonstrators in... (Associated Press) 
  
 Workers hold up cards reading "We don't need this kind of president!" during a May Day rally to pay tribute to the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 1, 2014. An off-duty... (Associated Press) 
  
 Pro-Russian activists clash with police in front of the regional administration building in Donetsk, Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Anti-government demonstrators in Donetsk have stormed the local prosecutor's... (Associated Press) 
  
 An injured Pro-Russian activist speaks with an armed protester during clashes with police in front of the regional administration building in Donetsk, Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Anti-government demonstrators... (Associated Press) 
  
 Pro-Russian protesters burn Ukrainian symbols in front of the regional administration building after clash with police in Donetsk, Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Anti-government demonstrators in Donetsk... (Associated Press) 
  
 Hours later, Ukraine's acting president ordered that the military draft be renewed, citing "threats of encroachment on the nation's territorial integrity" and interference by Russia in its internal affairs. 
  
 Moscow has consistently denounced Ukrainian security forces' largely ineffectual operation against the eastern insurgents and warned they should not commit violence against civilians. 
  
 In a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin said the removal of military units was the "main thing," but it was unclear if that could be construed as an outright demand. 
  
 Oleksandr Turchynov's conscription order marked a turnaround for the country, which last year announced plans to end military conscription in favor of an all-volunteer force. His order did not specify where conscript-bolstered forces could be deployed. The renewal of military conscription affects only men 18 to 25 years old. 
  
 Earlier in the week, the acting president said police and security forces had been effectively "helpless" against insurgents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the heart of the unrest, and that efforts should be focused on preventing the instability from spreading to other parts of the country. 
  
 In the regional capital city of Donetsk, anti-government demonstrators took over the regional prosecutor's office Thursday. Several dozen riot police standing guard at the office fired stun grenades and tear gas when some at the front of the crowd of several hundred people attempted to force their way into the building. 
  
 As the confrontation escalated, some in the crowd threw rocks and managed to wrest away shields from police. An Associated Press reporter saw a handful of officers being dragged away and beaten by members of the crowd. 
  
 Hundreds of onlookers accompanying the protesters shouted slogans and hurled abuse. 
  
 A car outside the building blared out patriotic World War II music. Inside, a passenger waved a flag bearing a doctored image of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in a black vest and holding a machine gun superimposed with the words: "Death to Fascism." 
  
 Upon occupying the building, protesters discarded the Ukrainian flag and replaced it with that of the Donetsk People's Republic — a movement that seeks either greater autonomy from the central government, or independence and possible annexation by Russia. 
  
 Donetsk is the heartland of support for Russia-friendly former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February after months of protests in the capital. Opponents of the government that succeeded him have seized buildings in about a dozen cities and towns in eastern Ukraine. 
  
 Local news website Novosti Donbassa reported that earlier in the day around 30 armed men arrived in six cars in the town of Amvrosiivka, which lies close to the Russian border, and took over the city council and forced the mayor to resign. 
  
 On Wednesday, insurgents took control of the customs-service building in Donetsk and city hall in Alchevsk, an industrial center of about 110,000 people, adding to the scores of buildings taken by the separatists over the past month in the east, where a dozen cities are now in the hands of the separatists. 
  
 There has also been a spate of reported kidnappings of pro-government politicians. The Svodoba nationalist party said a local party branch leader in Kostiantynivka, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Donetsk, initially managed to fight off attackers at his home but was taken away as he was phoning for help. 
  
 Turchynov has twice proclaimed "anti-terrorist" operations to regain control of the east, but to little effect. 
  
 Unlike many recent seizures of the government offices, the assault on the prosecutor's office appeared to have been spearheaded by people armed with little more than sticks. However, at least one young man was seen with a handgun tucked into his trousers, and at least one firebomb was thrown at the building. 
  
 The armed element of the insurgency is focused on Slovyansk, a city 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Donetsk in which seven European observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe remain held by pro-Russia gunmen. 
  
 Merkel on Thursday again called Putin and asked for his assistance in freeing the group, Merkel spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said. 
  
 Russia denies allegations from Kiev and the West that it is influencing or fomenting strife in eastern Ukraine. 
  
 The Kremlin confirmed the conversation and said Putin stressed "the main thing was for Ukraine to withdraw its troops from southeastern Ukraine, stop the violence and quickly start a broad national dialogue on constitutional reform." 
  
 In Washington, the second-ranking official of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the alliance now feels compelled to start treating Moscow as an adversary. 
  
 "In central Europe, clearly we have two different visions of what European security should be like," Alexander Vershbow, the deputy secretary-general of NATO, said in a question-and-answer session with reporters. 
  
 He said Russia's annexation of Crimea and its apparent efforts to manipulate turmoil in eastern Ukraine have fundamentally changed the NATO-Russia relationship. 
  
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 Associated Press Writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report. |||||
Solution:
Vladimir Putin floated a simple idea today to stop the violence in southeastern Ukraine: Ukraine should just give up. In a phone call with Germany's Angela Merkel, Putin said Kiev should withdraw its troops from the areas being overrun by pro-Moscow militias, reports the New York Times. That "would effectively cede control to the pro-Russian forces that have taken over about a dozen cities in the border area and are pushing for a referendum on its status," observes the Wall Street Journal. (Not that Ukraine's forces have been all that effective anyway.) “Putin emphasized that it was imperative today to withdraw all military units from the southeastern regions, stop the violence, and immediately launch a broad national dialogue as part of the constitutional reform process involving all regions and political forces,” said the Russian news agency Interfax. Kiev doesn't appear swayed. Hours after Putin's suggestion, Ukraine's acting president ordered the reinstatement of the nation's military draft for men ages 18 to 25, reports AP. He cited "threats of encroachment on the nation's territorial integrity" and accused Russia of interfering in its internal affairs.