Ukraine’s President accuses Russia of launching ‘direct and open aggression’

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia on Monday of launching "direct and open aggression" which he said had radically changed the balance on the battlefield against Kiev in its fight against pro-Russian separatists, Reuters reports.

"Direct and open aggression has been launched against Ukraine from a neighbouring state. This has changed the situation in the zone of conflict in a radical way," he said in a speech at a military academy in Kiev.

Following events last week in Ukraine, when government forces suffered major reverses against the rebels, there would be high-level personnel changes in the Ukrainian armed forces, he said.

A Ukrainian military official also said that forces were now battling pro-Russian rebels at the international airport of the eastern city of Luhansk.

The separatists earlier claimed they had seized the airport, but the army said the fighting was still ongoing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has urged negotiators meeting later in Belarus to make an "immediate ceasefire" their priority.

Some 2,600 people have died in eastern Ukraine since fighting began in April.

The conflict broke out after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in March.

The rebels have been gaining ground on Ukrainian forces in recent days, in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and further south around the port of Mariupol.