aljazeera.com
Separatists to allow "humanitarian corridor" for encircled troops after intervention by Russian president.
Ukraine's pro-Moscow separatists have agreed to let encircled Ukrainian government forces leave the rebel-held areas following intervention from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We are ready to give a humanitarian corridor," Alexander Zakharchenko, a rebel leader, told Rossiya 24 TV on Friday, adding that troops would have to leave their heavy armoured vehicles and ammunition.
The move came hours after Putin issued a statement published on the Kremlin's website overnight on Thursday, urging the separatists to "avoid unnecessary casualties".
"I call on the rebel forces to open a humanitarian corridor for the Ukrainian troops who are surrounded, so as to avoid unnecessary casualties and to give them the opportunity to withdraw from the zone of operations," said Putin.
The Ukrainian military said in a statement published on Friday that Putin's call testified to only one thing - "these people (separatists) are led and controlled directly from the Kremlin".
According to the rebels, up to 7,000 Ukrainian troops are trapped at several locations in the Donbass region.
Ukraine said on Thursday that the rebels had captured Novoazovsk with the help of Russian troops who had crossed over into Ukraine in "up to 100" tanks along with heavy weaponry.
Russia dismissed the allegations, describing the fighters as "Russian volunteers".
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied arming and supporting the separatists who have been battling Ukrainian troops for four months in the gravest crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
Satellite photos
NATO said on Thursday that at least 1,000 Russian troops were in Ukraine and later released what it said were satellite photos of Russian self-propelled artillery units moving last week.
Two columns of tanks and other equipment entered southeastern Ukraine at midday, following heavy shelling of the area from Russia that forced overmatched Ukrainian border guards to flee, said Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's national security council.
"Russian forces have entered Ukraine," President Petro Poroshenko said in Kiev, cancelling a foreign trip and calling an emergency meeting of his security council.
Poroshenko urged Ukrainians to remain calm. "Destabilisation of the situation and panic, this is as much of a weapon of the enemy as tanks," he told the council.
Obama condemnation
US President Barack Obama spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, with both leaders agreeing that Russia must face consequences for its actions.
"We agree - if there was ever any doubt - that Russia is responsible for the violence in eastern Ukraine," Obama said.
"The violence is encouraged by Russia. The separatists are trained by Russia, they are armed by Russia, they are funded by Russia."
He added that Russia "has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the new images of Russian forces inside Ukraine make that plain for the world to see".
But Obama ruled out a military confrontation between the US and Russia.
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