Putin: Ukraine Assault Like Nazis In WW2

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine's assault on its eastern cities is reminiscent of the Nazi siege of Leningrad.

He urged Kiev to begin "substantive" negotiations with the separatists to achieve peace, adding that Russians and Ukrainians are "practically one people".

"It is necessary to force the Ukrainian authorities to substantively begin these talks - not on technical issues… the talks must be substantive," Mr Putin told a youth camp outside Moscow.

He also said Russia needed to strengthen its position in the Arctic economically and politically.

Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed claims that its troops are fighting in eastern Ukraine as "conjecture".

Mr Lavrov: 'No proof of Russian involvement'

"We're hearing various conjectures, not for the first time, but not once have any facts been presented to us," he said at a news conference.

Mr Lavrov was speaking after the US accused Russia of lying about its involvement in Ukraine and warned of tougher economic sanctions.

Speaking at the White House, President Barack Obama said Russia has been supporting pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine "for months".

He ruled out any direct US military intervention but said Russia would incur "more costs and consequences".

Mr Obama: 'There will be consequences'

"The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia. Russia determined that it had to be a little more overt in what it had already been doing, but it's not really a shift," Mr Obama said.

Kiev said on Friday a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin for separatists to open a 'humanitarian corridor' to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to withdraw was further proof they were "led and controlled directly from the Kremlin".

"I'm calling on insurgents to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who were surrounded in order to avoid senseless deaths," Mr Putin said in a statement.

He went on to praise the pro-Russian separatists whom he described as "insurgents" for "undermining Kiev's military operation which threatened lives of the residents of Donbass and has already led to a colossal death toll among civilians."

A satellite image allegedly showing a Russian military incursion in Ukraine

It is thought Mr Putin was referring to Ukrainian troops who have been trapped outside the strategic town of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, for nearly a week.

A top insurgent in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk promptly reacted to Mr Putin's appeal but said the Ukrainian troops would have to lay down their arms before they were allowed to go.

"We are ready to open humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian troops who were surrounded with the condition that they surrender heavy weaponry and ammunition so that this weaponry and ammunition will not be used against us in future," Alexander Zakharchenko said on Russia's state Rossiya 24 television.

According to the UN, a total of 2,593 people have been killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine since it erupted in mid-April.

It said on Friday the figure includes civilians as well as Ukrainian and separatist combatants, but not the 298 victims of the MH17 Malaysian Airlines plane crash.

"The trend is clear and alarming. There is a significant increase in the death toll in the east," Ivan Simonovic, UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, told journalists.

He predicted civilian casualties would continue to rise "as each side increases its strength, through mobilisation, better organisation or the deployment of new fighters and more sophisticated weapons and support from outside

Nato is due to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later today, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said an EU summit on Saturday would discuss the prospect of further sanctions.

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