Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's embattled new leader agreed on Friday to immediate crisis talks with rebel commanders and Russia aimed at stemming the bloodshed that has threatened his country's survival and ruptured East-West ties.

Clashes in the economically-vital border regions of Lugansk and Donetsk have picked up with renewed vigour since Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tore up a 10-day ceasefire earlier this week.

His decision on Monday was immediately followed by the launch of a "massive" offensive by Kiev that led President Vladimir Putin to warn that Russia has the right to protect its compatriots in Ukraine.

The head of Ukraine's national security and defence council said government forces had regained control over 23 of the conflict zone's 36 local regions. But the military also reported the loss of nine soldiers in the latest overnight exchanges of mortar fire.

The uprising was sparked by the February ouster of a pro-Kremlin administration and fuelled by Russia's subsequent seizure of Crimea. Nearly three months of guerrilla warfare has killed more than 460 people and left Western leaders frustrated by repeated mediation failures.

But the ongoing low-scale warfare on the European Union's eastern frontier has also unified the West in its biggest pushback to date against Putin's seeming attempt to reassert command over former Soviet lands.

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A woman stands near a ruined house after an air strike carried out by Ukrainian fighter bombers, in …

Russia now faces the threat of devastating economic sanctions should Putin fail to explicitly order the militias to lay down their arms.

France and Germany -- still hoping to avoid new punitive steps that would damage their own economies -- have spearheaded efforts to set up new European-mediated discussions that would bring Poroshenko's envoys into rare contact with the rebel command.

US President Barack Obama and British Foreign Secretary William Hague both pressed Putin on Thursday to make sure the separatists attend the next meeting.

Poroshenko's decision to propose the next discussions for Saturday followed yet another telephone exchange with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.

The Ukrainian leader then told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that he had "proposed a place and time for the meeting and is waiting the other party's confirmation."

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow, on July 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Alexei …

Kiev has balked at the idea of holding another round-table in rebel-held Donetsk -- a location in which Moscow carries widespread influence.

A source at the Organisation and Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- a Vienna-based body first formed to preserve peace in the Cold War era and now leading the nascent peace talks -- said Donetsk remained the most likely venue for the so-called Contact Group discussion.

But the number two man in the Donetsk rebel cabinet told Interfax that he had been told that Kiev had rejected the city for security reasons and was instead proposing the Belarus capital Minsk.

- Russia as 'junior partner' -

The United States has preferred not to play a direct role in the negotiations this time around after its decision to send senior diplomats during the winter protests in Kiev enraged the Kremlin.

"The United States believes that it won the Cold War and that Russia -- a successor to the Soviet Union -- lost," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Moscow's Kommersant daily.Obama has had regular phone calls with European heads of state and Putin himself that underscored his concern about Russia's expansionist threat, but Washington's long-distance approach has done little to appease Moscow.

"And from this it concludes that Moscow must obey and conduct itself in international affairs... as a junior partner."

Poroshenko's security worries have been compounded by headaches over an imploding economy and Russia's decision in June to cut off gas supplies over disputed debts.

Ukraine is hoping to wean itself off its historic reliance on fuel from Russia. The finance ministry on Thursday published an eight-point blueprint on switching homes and heavy industry away from natural gas.

The long-term plan includes a greater reliance on coal and construction of new plants for converting cheaper liquified natural gas imports from the United States.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia is letting separatist rebels use its territory to attack Ukrainian border posts, a top security official charged Friday as clashes in southeastern Ukraine killed nine more government troops.

National Security Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy also said Russia was massing troops near the Ukrainian border — a statement that could not immediately be verified. The two neighbors, who share a 2,000-kilometer (1,250-mile) border that is unmarked and unguarded outside of a few checkpoints, have been trading claims and counterclaims ever since Ukraine began fighting pro-Russia separatists in April.

The government said nine troops were killed and 13 others wounded in Friday's fighting in the east, according to the Interfax news agency. It did not elaborate on where or how the deaths occurred.

Ukraine says Russia is arming and supporting the separatists, a charge that Russia denies. Ukraine is also wary about Russia grabbing more territory after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in March. Putin, however, has ignored rebel requests to join Russia and calls by Russian nationalists to send troops into Ukraine for fear of more Western sanctions.

Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, the head of Ukraine's SBU security service, told journalists that over the past four days 20 Russian tanks or armored vehicles had illegally crossed the border to take part in the insurgency.

For its part, Russia said Ukrainian troops fired shells that landed on the Russian side and hit Russian border posts, wounding one customs officer.

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Ukrainian soldiers drive a military vehicle with a Ukrainian flag at a checkpoint near Slaviansk in …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Friday that Ukraine had proposed a place and a time for peace talks but had not heard back from the other parties. Representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the rebels took part in earlier talks along with representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Poroshenko's government of dragging its feet on holding another round of negotiations and accused it of using cluster munitions against civilians.

Parubiy said government forces were attacking rebel positions in eastern Ukraine with artillery and planes and that 17 villages had been recaptured since a unilateral cease-fire expired Monday. He said Ukrainian forces now controlled 23 of the 36 local regions within the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces that that have declared independence.

The government is not in control, however, of the eastern region's main cities.

Andrei Purgin of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic dismissed the government's report.

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A damaged house is seen after shelling in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, T …

"Maybe they occupied 17 villages of some sort, but there wasn't a single militia fighter there," he said.

It is nearly impossible to prove or disprove the claims from opposing sides, since the fighting consists of intermittent clashes with no fixed front line and it is dangerous for journalists and other observers to travel around. Five journalists have been killed covering the conflict and teams of OSCE observers have been kidnapped by rebels.

Insurgents in Luhansk said Friday they have killed 125 Ukrainian troops, destroyed nine armored vehicles and downed three combat aircraft since Wednesday. Rebel claims of government troop deaths have been exaggerated in the past, however.

The city of Slovyansk in the Donetsk region has been a key flashpoint in the fighting. While Parubiy claimed that the government troops had flushed the rebels from Mykolaivka on the outskirts of Slovyansk, rebels there said Friday they have retained control of it.

Rebels shelled the Donetsk airport overnight. An AP reporter at the site said a radar or communications tower there was still burning Friday.

The crisis in Ukraine has strained Russia-West ties to a degree unseen since the Cold War, prompting NATO to consider long-term responses to Moscow's apparent new willingness to flex its military might.

To that end, NATO and Russia both launched navy exercises Friday in the Black Sea.

NATO's drills in the western part of the Black Sea just a few hundred miles from Ukraine's coast involve ships from the U.S., Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey. They were to continue until July 13.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet fielded about 20 ships and more than 20 aircraft for its maneuvers, which included missile launches at practice targets.

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Balint Szlanko in Donetsk, Ukraine and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Police officers patrol at a security gate inside the main terminal of Frankfurt Airport July 3, 2014. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Airlines with direct flights to the United States have been told to tighten screening of mobile phones and shoes in response to intelligence reports of increased threats from al Qaeda-affiliated militant groups, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The officials singled out smartphones including iPhones made by Apple Inc and Galaxy phones made by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for extra security checks on U.S.-bound direct flights from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

U.S. security officials said they fear bombmakers from the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have figured out how to turn the phones into explosive devices that can avoid detection.

They also are concerned that hard-to-detect bombs could be built into shoes, said the officials, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A U.S. official said that other electronic devices carried by passengers also are likely to receive more intense scrutiny.

Airlines brace for security turbulencePlay Video

Airlines or airport operators that fail to strengthen security could face bans on flights entering the United States, the officials said.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department announced on Wednesday plans to step up security checks, but they offered few details on how airlines and airports will implement them.

An official familiar with the matter said the United States believes that while it is possible there may be some additional delays at security checkpoints, at most major airports passengers will not be seriously inconvenienced.

The official said most passengers taking long-distance flights arrive well in advance of scheduled departures, leaving time for extra screening. But he said the United States could not rule out disruptions in countries where airport infrastructure and security procedures are less sophisticated.

U.S.-based airlines had little to say about the enhanced security. American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the Department of Homeland Security had been in contact with American on the issue, but declined to comment further.

Luke Punzenberger, a spokesman for United Airlines Inc[UALCO.UL], said: "We work closely with federal officials on security matters, but we are not able to discuss the details of those efforts."

U.S. security agencies fear bombmakers from AQAP and the Islamist Nusra Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, are collaborating on plots to attack U.S.- or Europe-bound planes with bombs concealed on foreign fighters carrying Western passports, the officials said.

AQAP has a track record of plotting such attacks. Its innovative bombmaker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, built an underwear bomb used in a failed 2009 effort to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner, and his devices were implicated in other plots.

There was no immediate indication U.S. intelligence had detected a specific plot or timeframe for any attack.

U.S. officials say the United States has acquired evidence that Nusra and AQAP operatives have tested new bomb designs in Syria, where Nusra is one of the main Islamist groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

(Editing by Jason Szep, Andrew Hay and Lisa Shumaker)

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