Ukraine said today fighting had erupted in the heart of major rebel stronghold Lugansk, as the bodies of 17 civilians fleeing the city were recovered from wreckage of their destroyed convoy.
As government forces cut deeper into insurgent territory, Kiev and Moscow announced that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko will hold their first face-to-face talks in months next week with pressure piling on to end four months of brutal fighting.
Kiev's military claimed for the first time that street battles with pro-Russian insurgents were raging in the centre of second-largest insurgent hub Lugansk after one outlying district was "liberated".
If confirmed, any advance by Ukraine's army into Lugansk, which has endured brutal shelling and weeks without running water or electricity, would be a major breakthrough for Kiev in the bloody conflict that has claimed over 2,100 lives since April.
Adding to this toll, the military said it had recovered the bodies of 17 civilians burned alive when a convoy evacuating them from Lugansk was hit by a rebel mortar strike yesterday.
Pro-Kremlin insurgents have denied the allegations, which could not be independently verified.
A fresh push to ease tensions between Russia and Ukraine was underway after weekend talks between the top diplomats from both countries failed to make any breakthrough.
Kiev has claimed the Kremlin is ramping up weapon supplies in a bid to stave off defeat for the rebels and could be readying to invade as a last throw of the dice, allegations rejected by Moscow.
Moscow and Kiev announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko will hold their first face-to-face talks in almost three months at a meeting in Minsk with top EU officials on August 26.
The encounter will come three days after a key visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Kiev for crisis talks with Ukraine's leadership.
Valeriy Chalyi, a senior official in Ukraine's presidency, expressed cautious optimism that a "precise diplomatic roadmap" was taking shape that could help steer a path towards peace.
"We are moving from telephone diplomacy to direct interaction and it will be a very important week for the future prospects," he said.
Two senior UN officials -- Under-Secretary General Jeffrey Feltman and humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos -- are also set to travel to Kiev later this week.
