Despite Western claims that Russia is backing separatist rebels in Ukraine and has sent its own troops over the border, Moscow has again insisted that it won’t intervene militarily.<br /><br />Speaking to students in the capital, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also called for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” to be discussed during crisis talks in Belarus today.<br /><br />“There will be no military intervention,” Lavrov said.<br /><br />“ We are exclusively in favour of a peaceful solution to this terrible crisis, to this tragedy, and everything we do is to seek a political solution to the conflict.”<br /><br />The talks in Minsk will bring together representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE security forum and separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.<br /><br />As President Putin urged talks on the “statehood” of southern and eastern Ukraine, his counterpart in Kyiv, Petro Poroshenko, <br />accused Russia of launching “direct and open aggression”.<br /><br />Ukraine now says its forces are facing a “batallion of Russian tanks” around the airport of the rebel stronghold of Luhansk.<br /><br />And Ukrainian troops and local residents are reinforcing the port of Mariupol, the next big city in the path of pro-Russian fighters who pushed back government forces along the Azov Sea last week in an offensive on a new front.
