RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service/AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday publicly addressed pro-Russian rebels fighting in southeastern Ukraine for the first time , praising their "major success" inside Ukraine.

The Kremlin released a late-night statement from Putin on its website in which he appealed to the militia of "Novorossyia," or "New Russia."

It's a term he has used before to describe the regions in eastern Ukraine where fighting has raged for months — a term that describes the area north of the Black Sea that was conquered by Russia in the late 18th century through peace treaties with the Cossack Hetmanate and the Ottoman Empire. In 1922, the area became part of the Soviet Union. The term is mostly used now by Russian nationalists who wish for Russia to reconquer the area.

" It is clear the militia has achieved a major success in intercepting Kiev’s military operation, which represents a grave danger to the population of Donbass and which has already led to the loss of many lives among peaceful residents," Putin said in his statement to the militia.

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Wikimedia Commons

A map of "new Russia."

Putin's statement is notable because he has at multiple points in the months-long crisis denied any influence over the rebels. His words fueled Ukraine's charges that the pro-Russian separatists are essentially puppets whose strings are pulled by the Kremlin.

Ukraine and the West have charged Russia with arming, equipping, and training the pro-Russian rebels. And on Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russian troops had come across the border to join the rebels in fighting.

Putin and Russia have denied any control over the rebels, declining repeated calls from Western leaders to intervene with the rebels at points to defuse the ongoing crisis. But Ukraine's military said Putin's statement made clear that the separatists have been "led and controlled directly from the Kremlin," according to The Washington Post.

This week, the rebels have opened a new front in the cities of Amvrosiivka and Starobeshevo. One fear is that Russia is attempting to create a land link between Russia and the strategic peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed with special forces troops in March. Poroshenko said Russian t roops are leading a separatist counteroffensive in the east, bringing in tanks and firing artillery from inside Ukrainian territory.

In his statement, Putin went on to urge the militia of "New Russia" to allow for a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who have been surrounded to retreat.

"I call on the militia groups to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian service members who have been surrounded, so as to avoid any needless loss of life, giving them the opportunity to leave the combat area unimpeded and reunite with their families, to return them to their mothers, wives and children, and to quickly provide medical assistance to those who were injured in the course of the military operation," Putin said.

Meanwhile, the West hinted Thursday at stronger, more punishing sanctions. President Barack Obama said he had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday and the two agreed that Russia was "responsible" for the escalating violence in eastern Ukraine.

"Russia is responsible for the violence in eastern Ukraine," Obama said in a statement from the White House. " This ongoing Russian incursion into Ukraine will only bring more costs and consequences for Russia."

Here's the situation in eastern Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukraine's military:

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Ukraine National Security and Defense Council

NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russia separatists, relaxed and well-equipped, held firm control on Friday of the strategic coastal town of Novoazovsk, a day after Ukraine claimed tanks and armored vehicles had invaded from Russia.

Associated Press reporters saw at least a half-dozen tanks in the town of about 12,000 people, bearing the flags of Novorossiya, the would-be state proclaimed by rebels in two eastern Ukraine regions. None of the tanks bore Russian markings, but ready-made meals seen near one of the tanks carried markings that they were issued by the Russian army.

"There is no Russian equipment coming through here. We are fighting with the machinery the (Ukrainian forces) abandon. They just dump it and flee," said a rebel commander who identified himself only by the nom-de-guerre Frantsuz (The Frenchman).

Although such claims of using only confiscated Ukrainian equipment are common, top rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko himself has said Russia was supplying equipment and fighters. And Russia's consistent rejection of the allegations is hotly dismissed by the West.

"Despite Moscow's hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday. "This is a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution."

On Thursday, NATO said at least 1,000 Russian troops are in Ukraine and later released what it said were satellite photos of Russian self-propelled artillery units moving last week.

A spokesman for the rebels in Novoazovsk, who identified himself only as Alexander, said their plan was to try to eventually push westward to the major port city of Mariupol, about 35 kilometers (20 miles) away. There was no sign of imminent movement on Friday, but Alexander's statement underlined fears that the rebels' eventual aim is to establish a land bridge between Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimea peninsula further to the west.

The rebels also showed four Ukrainian soldiers and a wounded fighter from the pro-government Azov Battalion who were being held captive.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with South African President Jacob Zuma in the Novo-O …

The wounded fighter, Maxim, said he was taken when his vehicle was ambushed and two comrades killed. "Now I am here and there are negotiations taking place for me to be exchanged," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on pro-Russian separatists to release Ukrainian soldiers who have been surrounded by the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Putin's statement came several hours after Ukraine accused Russia of entering its territory with tanks, artillery and troops, and Western powers accused Moscow of lying about its role and dangerously escalating the conflict.

"I'm calling on insurgents to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who were surrounded in order to avoid senseless deaths," Putin said in the statement published on the Kremlin's web-site in the early hours on Friday.

Putin didn't address the claims about Russia's military presence in Ukraine. Instead, he lauded the pro-Russian separatists for "undermining Kiev's military operation which threatened lives of the residents of Donbass and has already led to a colossal death toll among civilians."

Putin's statement could be referring to Ukrainian troops who have been trapped outside the strategic town of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, for nearly a week now. Protesters rallied outside the Ukrainian General Staff on Thursday, demanding reinforcements and heavy weaponry for the troops outside Ilovaysk, most of whom are volunteers.

Zakharchenko, the rebel leader, said the Ukrainian troops would have to lay down the arms before they were allowed to go.

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Pro-Russia fighters are seen in Troitsko-Khartsyzk, east of Donetsk, on August 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/F …

"With all our respect to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the president of a country which gives us moral support, we are ready to open humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian troops who were surrounded with the condition that they surrender heavy weaponry and ammunition so that this weaponry and ammunition will not be used against us in future," he said on Russia's state Rossiya 24 television.

A spokesman for Ukraine's national security council, Col. Andriy Lysenko, rejected that condition.

"Ukraine is not ready to surrender arms and kneel in front of the aggressor," he told reporters.

The U.N. human rights office on Friday accused both sides of deliberately targeting civilians.

Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have carried out murders, torture and abductions along with other serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, according to the mission's field work between July 16 and Aug. 17. The report also said Ukraine's military is guilty of human rights violations such as arbitrary detentions, disappearances and torture.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic, who visited Kiev on Friday, said the death toll had reached nearly 2,600 by Aug. 27, and described the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine as "alarming."

Simonovic condemned rebels for preventing people from leaving cities caught up in the fighting. He also pointed to reports of violations by volunteer battalions under government control.

Putin compared Ukrainian troops firing at civilians and surrounding cities in eastern Ukraine to the Nazi siege of Leningrad. He said residents of Ukraine's east were "suppressed with force" because they disagreed with what he called a coup in Kiev in February.

The Leningrad Siege comparison is a powerful one for Russians and clearly aimed at portraying the Ukraine conflict in stark and tendentious good-versus-evil terms. The 872-day siege, in which at least 670,000 civilians died, is a major touchstone for Russia's exalted sense of heroism amid suffering.

To stop the bloodshed, the Kiev government should open talks with the rebels who took up arms in defense, he said.

At a meeting in Milan, several European Union foreign ministers accused Russia of invading eastern Ukraine and said Moscow should be punished with additional, biting economic sanctions.

The diplomats were expected to prepare further measures, which could then be decided by a summit of the bloc's leaders Saturday in Brussels.

For the second day, Russian markets reacted nervously to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine with the Russian ruble diving to the all-time low of 37.10 rubles against the U.S. dollar in early morning trading, but recovered later to 36.90 rubles.

In Donetsk, the largest city under rebel control, the mayor's office reported sustained shelling across town on Friday morning. No casualties were immediately reported.

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Nataliya Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Jim Heintz in Kiev, Raf Casert in Brussels and Juergen Baetz in Milan contributed reporting.

LAKE SELIGER Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia's armed forces, backed by its nuclear arsenal, were ready to meet any aggression, declaring at a pro-Kremlin youth camp that foreign states should understand: "It's best not to mess with us."

Putin told the assembly, on the banks of a lake near Moscow, the Russian takeover of Crimea in March was essential to save a largely Russian-speaking population from Ukrainian government violence.

He said continued fighting in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists launched an uprising in April, was the result of a refusal by Kiev to negotiate.

Ukraine, and Western governments, accuse Russia of sending troops and armor to back the separatists in a conflict that has already killed over 2,000 people. Russia denies the charge.

"Russia is far from being involved in any large-scale conflicts," he said at the camp on the banks of Lake Seliger."We don't want that and don't plan on it. But naturally, we should always be ready to repel any aggression towards Russia.

"Russia's partners... should understand it's best not to mess with us," said Putin, dressed casually in a grey sweater and light blue jeans.

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Pro-Russia fighters are seen in Troitsko-Khartsyzk, east of Donetsk, on August 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/F …

"Thank God, I think no one is thinking of unleashing a large-scale conflict with Russia. I want to remind you that Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers."

Putin spoke easily with the students, many of whom looked to be asking scripted questions about demography and history. Other times he accepted gifts or, smilingly, played down their praise.

When a student said that she had not heard a single negative comment about Putin's presidency from camp speakers, he responded with a grin that "objectivity" was important.

His tone darkened when speaking on Ukraine, blaming the United States and the European Union for the "unconstitutional" removal of Kiev's former Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich and replacement with a pro-European government.

He said eastern Ukraine did not agree with Yanukovich's removal and was now subjected to "crude military force" from government planes, tanks and artillery.

"If those are contemporary European values, then I'm simply disappointed in the highest degree," he said, comparing Ukraine's military operations in the east of the country with the Nazi siege of Leningrad in World War Two.

"Small villages and large cities surrounded by the Ukrainian army which is directly hitting residential areas with the aim of destroying the infrastructure... It sadly reminds me of the events of the Second World War, when German fascist... occupiers surrounded our cities."

(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk, Writing by Thomas Grove; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Thousands of militants paraded in the besieged Gaza Strip Friday, defiantly saying they would rearm as the prospects of a final deal on a long-term Israel-Hamas truce looked shaky.

Calm returned to the coastal enclave in a Tuesday ceasefire, and Gazans were gradually starting to rebuild their lives after a bloody and destructive 50-day war, the deadliest for years.

However, the chances of long-term peace hung in the balance after Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal ruled out Israeli demands to disarm, and as Israel said it would not budge on key Hamas demands.

Thousands of Islamic Jihad fighters paraded through Gaza City in a show of force, marching with light weapons and holding aloft rockets similar to those fired at Israel during the conflict.

The spokesman for Al-Quds Brigades, the group's armed wing, delivered a speech praising backers Iran and allies Hezbollah and declaring the militants would "redouble efforts" to rearm.

"We have not stopped making weapons, even during the battle, and we will redouble our efforts... to prepare for the next stage, which we hope will be the battle for freedom," said the spokesman known as Abu Hamza.

His words echoed those of the exiled leader of Hamas, Gaza's de facto ruler.

"The weapons of the resistance are sacred and we will not accept that they be on the agenda" of future talks with Israel, Meshaal said Thursday in Doha.

A top Iranian military official vowed to help Palestinian militants rearm.

"Be assured that the Iranian people and the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps will help you more than in the past in all defence and social domains," said commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari, in remarks posted on the Internet.

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Palestinians hold a mock rocket and a model of a Hamas-made drone during a rally celebrating what th …

Israel has consistently linked the reconstruction of the Gaza enclave to its demilitarisation.

"It has become abundantly clear that unless Hamas is disarmed and its tools of control removed, there can be no peace and security for either Israelis or Palestinians," said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

- 'Hamas was hit hard' -

Both Israel and Hamas are claiming the truce as a victory.

"Hamas was hit very hard and there is here a military achievement of the highest order, as well as a diplomatic achievement because they dropped all of their demands," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a US delegation.

"They got to this point the hard way. They kept testing us and every time we struck them but the last time, given this accumulation of blows, they were persuaded."

Talks on crunch issues such as Hamas's demands for a port and an airport and the release of prisoners, as well as Israeli calls for militant groups to be disarmed, have been put on hold until negotiators return to Cairo within a month.

Meshaal acknowledged that not all the Hamas conditions for a ceasefire were met but stressed that its arsenal "guarantees that our demands will not be overlooked."

"Not all our demands have been satisfied... but an important part," he said, referring to the easing of Israel's blockade of the impoverished territory.

The seven-week conflict claimed the lives of 2,143 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them civilians according to the United Nations, and 65 soldiers and six civilians on the Israeli side.

Islamic Jihad said Friday 121 of its fighters died.

- Carrots and sticks -

Israel HaYom freesheet, seen as close to Netanyahu, said continued Egypt-mediated talks with Hamas would have to balance toughness with incentives.

"Hamas did not surrender," it wrote. "To deny it any motivation to fire again... Israel should combine carrots and sticks."

"It should be generous in opening the crossings and the passage for goods so that it will be clear to Hamas what it stands to lose, and it should be clear about the immediate meaning of the violation of the ceasefire -- a return to warfare."

Meanwhile the Jordanian parliament welcomed the "permanent" truce between Israel and Hamas, calling it a "new victory for the resistance".

Its statement on Friday came as more than 10,000 people staged a rally organised by Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood in eastern Amman to celebrate "Gaza's victory".

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UK PM Cameron addresses raised terror threat

The United Kingdom has raised its terror threat level to "severe" in response to the advances of the Islamic State, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Friday.

Cameron, in a televised statement from London, said it was the first time in three years that the nation's threat level had been that high. It had previously been at "substantial."

A "severe" threat level means an attack is "highly likely," Cameron said, although he did not cite specific intelligence.

The change was made by Britain's Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre following ISIL's advance in Iraq and Syria and its videotaped beheading of American photojournalist James Foley earlier this month. Cameron noted the British accent of Foley's killer in the video, and he said "at least 500" people have now traveled from Britain to fight with ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

ISIL, Cameron said, presents "a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before."

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He called the Islamic State "a poisonous ideology of Islamist extremism" that must be confronted head-on.

"We cannot appease this ideology. We have to confront it at home and abroad," Cameron said.

He said the country would impose tighter restrictions on the travel of foreign nationals, among other steps. He voiced support for the airstrikes President Obama has ordered in Iraq, but he gave no indication that the U.K. would be joining the military campaign.

"The key point is that military force is just one element of what we can do," Cameron said.

He said he believed the West would be fighting the extremist ideology of ISIL "for years and probably for decades"

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/uk-raises-its-terror-threat-level-to-severe/379369/