Freeing separatist Ukraine regions on cards: Russian President Putin

Ukrainian authorities deny launching an offensive and accuse Russia of provocation amid intensifying shelling along the line of contact

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that he no longer felt that a 2015 peace plan agreed would be able to resolve Ukraine's separatist conflict.

"We understand that there are no prospects" for the implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace accords, agreed in the capital of Belarus to end fighting between Ukraine's army and pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country, Putin told his security council.

Meanwhile, the United States has warned the United Nations it has information that Russia has lists of people from Ukraine "to be killed or sent to camps" in the event of an invasion, as