let's speak to barnaby philip who joins us from donetsk so who is pulling the stringing if they are losingontrol? >> well, it's pretty clear that pro-russian groups are increasingly in control, shoely. they are taking over city after city, town after town. as to who is pulling the strings ultimately, that's the question. most are convinced that the real puppet master is vladimir putin and it is the kremlin who is controlling events here. an accusation denied by the russian government of course. >> and there must still be prokiev people there. so what is happening to them? i know there was supposed to be a pro-kiev demo at one stage. >> in short they are lying low. there was a pro-kiev demonstration in donetsk, the town from where i'm speaking on monday evening, a few hundred, perhaps as many as a thousand came out and they took an all mighty beating from pro-russian groups. and the police made the most tokenistic effort to present that violence. there was going to be another demonstration, but it was canceled by the city authorities. and you would have to be a brave person to go out on the

barnaby philip reports from kiev. >> reporter: vice president joe biden was warmly received in kiev. government in such a desperate situation would be grateful for the u.s. backing. >> no nation, no nation has the right to simply grab land from another nation. no nation has that right. and we will never recognize russia's illegal occupation of crimea, and neither will the world. >> translator: russia should stick to its international commitments and obligations. we demand that russia fulfill its international obligations and not behave like gangersteres in the modern century. >> reporter: the americans are promising more support to help ukraine reduce its independence on russian gas, but that will take time, and time is one thing the government in kiev does not have. in kiev's independence square, the crowds have gone, but the roads are still blocked, the mood still defiant. last week's geneva agreement said the illegal occasion of all public space should end, and the russians argue that applies as much here in kiev as anywhere in the east. but here in independence square they say th