Russia’s Putin blames Kiev for increased violence in east Ukraine

On the occasions referred to by Mr Lavrov, Kiev says Russian troops entered Ukraine to crush government forces at Ilovaisk and Debaltseve respectively; some 9,000 Russian troops started war games yesterday, including units stationed near Ukraine’s border.

A ceasefire agreement in place since February has seen both sides pledge to move heavy arms away from the line of contact to prevent such incidents.

Putin, on a visit to Russia-annexed Crimea, claimed Ukrainian troops and hardware are massing in the southeast. His ideology is to turn back the clock to a Soviet era mindset.

“There can be no mistake about who is responsible: Russian Federation and the separatists are launching these attacks, just as they escalated the conflict last August”, its spokesman, John Kirby, said in Washington.

“Russian Federation has adamantly denied Ukraine”™s allegations that it has sent soldiers to fight on behalf of the rebels.

Among the dead were seven civilians and two government soldiers, reports said. The subsequent time they’ll get a fast response.

The leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine are to meet in Berlin on Monday in a bid to bring an end to a new wave of violence in Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

Sartana is closer to the centre of Mariupol than Shyrokyne and other towns which have recently been caught in the crossfire between Ukraine forces and the separatists.

“We are anxious by the developments in recent days, which strongly resemble preparations for more military action”, Mr Lavrov said.

“On one street there were five houses which had been really badly damaged by shell fragments”.

The United Nations estimates the violence has killed more than 6,800 people since April 2014 and has driven at least 1.4 million from their homes.

The upsurge in fighting dogged Russia’s rouble on Monday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced Kirby’s comments as “the U.S. State Department’s effective approval of the Ukrainian Army’s attacks on rebel positions”. The agreement, known as Minsk II, stipulates that the two sides should withdraw their heavy weaponry from the frontlines in order for the ceasefire to hold.

“MOSCOW”” Russia”™s foreign minister said Monday that a surge in fighting near Ukraine”™s southeastern port city of Mariupol is a likely harbinger of a Ukrainian military offensive eastward into rebel-held territory.