DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Rockets slammed into a high-security prison Monday in the rebel-held city of Donetsk, igniting a riot that allowed more than 100 prisoners to flee, authorities in eastern Ukraine said.

Donetsk city council spokesman Maxim Rovinsky said a direct rocket hit killed at least one inmate and left three others severely wounded. In the chaos, he said 106 prisoners escaped, included some jailed for murder, robbery and rape.

In the past week Ukrainian government forces have intensified their military operations and surrounded Donetsk, the largest city in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Exchanges of rocket fire and deaths from shelling have become a feature of daily life and hundreds of thousands have chosen to flee.

The prison break became possible after a substation providing the building with electricity was damaged, disabling the facility's alarm system.

"Extremely dangerous prisoners are now free. It is hard to know the extent of threat this poses to the city, which is flooded with weapons," Rovinsky said.

Rebels routinely accuse government forces of using heavy artillery in their campaign to retake Donetsk.

But Ukrainian security spokesman Andriy Lysenko blamed the prison strike on separatist fighters.

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Ukrainian fire fighters have a break as they put out the fire at the destroyed building after shelli …

"Bandits in Donetsk shelled residential quarters and correctional facility No. 124," he said.

Prisoners said the rocket hit their building late Sunday night.

"At around 10 p.m., after lights went out and the prisoners began heading to their sleeping quarters, a rocket hit this place," said one prisoner, who gave his name as Vova Kordemansky. "Nobody was in this room, but one guy downstairs had his head blown off."

Officials with Ukraine's state penitentiary service said later Monday that 34 prisoners had returned to the jail. It was not immediately possible to verify that claim.

UKRAINE ARMY CLOSE TO TAKING DONETSK (video)

A rocket slams into a high-security facility in Donetsk and allows more than 100 prisoners to escape.
Some 'extremely dangerous'

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — The Red Cross will lead an international humanitarian aid operation with Russia and the European Union into the rebel-held city of Luhansk — a plan that Ukraine says the backing of President Barack Obama.

The Kremlin earlier announced that it was dispatching the humanitarian convoy into eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine had previously objected to Russia sending any aid into the region, and the West had strongly warned Russia that any attempt to send its military personnel into Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian assistance would be seen as an invasion.

In the last week, Ukrainian government forces have been closing in on the few remaining pro-Russian rebel strongholds in eastern Ukraine, including surrounding Donetsk, the largest city in rebel-held city. Hundreds of thousands have been fleeing the fighting.

Shortly after the Kremlin statement, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko got on a phone call with President Barack Obama, according to their offices.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of supplying heavy weapons and other equipment to the rebels in eastern Ukraine, a charge that Russia denies.

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A wounded Ukrainian woman receiving treatment after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Au …

The Kremlin statement came after a telephone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso. It didn't say when the convoy would leave or provide other details.

Barroso's office said he warned Russia "against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia has agreed on details of a humanitarian mission with the Ukrainian leadership.

"I hope that our Western partners will not put a spanner in the works," he said.

Lavrov said that the Ukrainian military action in the east looks like an attempt to "raze it to the ground to force the Russians to leave and settle it with others who would have a different attitude to our nations' history, culture, friendship and links that have existed for centuries."

Ukraine says its forces close to taking rebel-held …Play Video

Barroso also talked to Poroshenko, emphasizing "the EU's readiness to increase its support to the Ukrainian government-led humanitarian response efforts as well as to international humanitarian organizations."

Earlier Monday, rockets slammed into a high-security prison in the main rebel-held city of Donetsk, igniting a riot that allowed more than 100 prisoners to flee, authorities said.

Donetsk city council spokesman Maxim Rovinsky said a direct rocket hit killed at least one inmate and left three others severely wounded. In the chaos, he said 106 prisoners escaped, included some jailed for murder, robbery and rape.

Many of those in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine distrust the new central government in Kiev, which came to power after the February ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych, whose power base was in eastern Ukraine.

Fighting began a month after Russia annexed Ukraine's peninsula of Crimea in March.

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Associated Press writer Peter Leonard in Kiev, Ukraine and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Russia sending aid convoy to Ukraine despite Western warnings of 'invasion pretext'

By Adrian Croft and Sergei Karpukhin

BRUSSELS/DONETSK (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday Russia is sending an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine despite urgent Western warnings against using humanitarian help as a pretext for an invasion.

With Ukraine reporting Russia has massed 45,000 troops on its border, NATO said there was a "high probability" that Moscow could intervene militarily in the country's east, where Kiev's forces are closing in on pro-Russian separatists.

Western countries believe that Putin - who has whipped up the passions of Russians with a nationalist campaign in state-controlled media since annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March - could now send his forces into the east to head off a humiliating rebel defeat.

Thousands of people are believed to be short of water, electricity and medical aid due to the fighting, but U.S. President Barack Obama told his Ukrainian counterpart that any Russian intervention without Kiev's consent would be unacceptable and violate international law.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso delivered a blunter message directly to Putin in a telephone call on Monday. "President Barroso warned against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian," the Commission said in a statement.

The Kremlin, in its own account of the conversation, made clear that Moscow would indeed send help to largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

"It was noted that the Russian side, in collaboration with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is sending an aid convoy to Ukraine," the Kremlin statement said, without revealing when the convoy was going.

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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Alliance …

In a cautious response, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had submitted a document to Russian and Ukrainian officials on delivering aid. However, the independent agency stressed in a statement that it needed agreement from all parties as well as security guarantees to carry out the operation, as it does not use armed escorts.

"The practical details of this operation need to be clarified before this initiative can move forward," said Laurent Corbaz, head of ICRC operations for Europe and Central Asia.

According to U.N. agencies, more than 1,100 people have been killed including government forces, rebels and civilians in the four months since the separatists seized territory in the east and Kiev launched its crackdown.

UKRAINE SEEKS INTERNATIONAL EFFORT

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came out in support of an aid mission but made clear it had to be an international effort under the aegis of the ICRC, involving the European Union as well as Russia.

He won Obama's backing when they spoke by phone on Monday.

The White House quoted Obama as saying that any Russian intervention without the Ukrainian government's agreement would be "unacceptable" and a violation of international law.

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A wounded Ukrainian woman receiving treatment after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Au …

Earlier, Kiev said it was in the "final stages" of recapturing the eastern city of Donetsk - the main base of the separatist rebels - in a battle that could mark a turning point in a conflict that has caused the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

An industrial metropolis with a pre-war population of nearly 1 million, Donetsk rocked to the crash of shells and gunfire over the weekend, and heavy guns boomed through the night into Monday from the outskirts of the city.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said there was no sign Russia had withdrawn the troops it had massed at the Ukrainian frontier. Asked in a Reuters interview how he rated the chances of Russian military intervention, Rasmussen said: "There is a high probability."

"We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation, and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine," he said.

SAVING THE REBELS

NATO fears Moscow would use any aid mission as a cover to save the rebels, who are fighting for control of two provinces under the banner of "New Russia", a term Putin has used for southern and eastern Ukraine, where mostly Russian is spoken.

Ukraine appears to be pressing ahead with its offensive, undeterred by the presence of what NATO says are about 20,000 Russian troops massed on the nearby border for a potential ground invasion.

Kiev put the size of the Russian forces much higher. "As of 11 o'clock today, about 45,000 troops of the armed forces and internal forces of the Russian Federation are concentrated in border areas," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a briefing.

He said they were supported by 160 tanks, 1,360 armoured vehicles, 390 artillery systems, up to 150 Grad missile launchers, 192 fighter aircraft and 137 attack helicopters.

Lysenko said Ukrainian government forces had finally succeeded in cutting off the road between Donetsk and Luhansk, the other main rebel-held city, which is closer to the Russian border. Kiev and its Western allies say the route has been the principal means of supplying the rebels in Donetsk with weapons.

Fighting in recent weeks has focused on the route, near where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in July, killing all 298 people on board. Washington says the plane was almost certainly shot down accidentally by rebels using an advanced Russian missile. Moscow denies this.

"The forces of the anti-terrorist operation are preparing for the final stage of liberating Donetsk," Lysenko told Reuters. "Our forces have completely cut Donetsk off from Luhansk. We are working to liberate both cities, but it's better to liberate Donetsk first - it is more important."

The leader of the rebels in Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko, a local man who took over the leadership from a Russian citizen last week, said the fighters were considering mounting a counter-attack against government forces in the next two or three days.

And a volunteer government fighter suggested claims that government forces were about to take Donetsk were inflated. "Taking the town is an extremely complicated business and painful ... It will take, at the very least, several weeks," said Andriy Beletsky, commander of the so-called Azov battalion.

Municipal authorities in Donetsk said artillery shelling knocked out power stations in the city and hit a high-security prison, killing one inmate and allowing more than 100 criminals to escape.

(Additional reporting by Richard Balmforth, Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets in Kiev, Alexei Anishchuk and Lina Kushch in Donetsk, Katya Golubkova in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Mark Felsenthal in Washington and Barbara Lewis in Brussels; Writing by Richard Balmforth, Peter Graff and David Stamp; Editing by Peter Millership and Will Waterman)


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NATO: 'High probability' Russia will invade Ukraine

Ukraine troops close in on rebel stronghold Donetsk, and worries remain as Moscow troops stay on the border.
Final stages

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A black teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer had his hands raised when the officer approached with his weapon drawn and fired repeatedly, according to two men who said they witnessed the shooting that sparked a night of unrest in suburban St. Louis.

The FBI opened an investigation Monday into the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who police said was shot multiple times Saturday after being confronted by an officer in Ferguson, a suburb of 21,000 that's nearly 70 percent black.

Authorities were vague about exactly what led the officer to open fire, except to say that the shooting was preceded by a scuffle of some kind. It was unclear whether Brown or a man he was with was involved in the altercation.

Investigators have refused to publicly disclose the race of the officer, who is now on administrative leave. But Phillip Walker said he was on the porch of an apartment complex overlooking the scene when he heard a shot and saw a white officer with Brown on the street.

Brown "was giving up in the sense of raising his arms and being subdued," Walker told The Associated Press on Monday. The officer "had his gun raised and started shooting the individual in the chest multiple times." The officer then "stood over him and shot him" after the victim fell wounded.

Dorian Johnson offered a similar account when he told WALB-TV that he and Brown were walking home from a convenience store when a police officer told them to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. Johnson said they kept walking, which caused the officer to confront them from his car and again after getting out of the vehicle.

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Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed during a confrontation with a police officer.

Johnson said the first time the officer fired, he and Brown got scared and ran away.

"He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air, and he started to get down," Johnson said. "But the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots."

"We wasn't causing harm to nobody," Johnson said. "We had no weapons on us at all."

Walker acknowledged that he did not see a scuffle or the circumstances that preceded the first gunshot.

The St. Louis County Police Department refused to discuss Johnson's remarks, citing the ongoing investigation. But county Police Chief Jon Belmar previously said that an officer encountered Brown and another man outside an apartment complex, and that one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car and they struggled over the officer's weapon.

Raw: Tensions Continue High in Ferguson, MoPlay Video

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said there's no video footage of the shooting from the apartment complex or from any police dashboard cameras or body-worn cameras that the department recently bought but has not yet put to use.

Brown's parents and their attorneys asked the public to share any information and videos they might have related to the shooting.

The family had planned to drop their son off at a technical college Monday to begin his studies.

"Instead of celebrating his future, they are having to plan his funeral," said Benjamin Crump, a family attorney who also represented Trayvon Martin's relatives after he was slain in 2012 in Florida.

"I don't want to sugarcoat it," Crump added. Brown "was executed in broad daylight."

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Passers-by and media take a closer look Monday, Aug. 11, 2014 at the burned-out shell of the QuikTri …

Crump and some civil rights leaders drew comparisons between Brown's death and that of Martin and other young black men killed in racially charged incidents.

Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said she did not understand why police did not subdue her son with a club or stun gun. She said the officer involved should be fired and prosecuted, adding that "I would like to see him go to jail with the death penalty."

The FBI is looking into possible civil rights violations, said Cheryl Mimura, a spokeswoman for the agency's St. Louis field office.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the case deserves a full review.

Nearly three dozen people were arrested following a candlelight vigil Sunday night after crowds looted and burned stores, vandalized vehicles, assaulted and threatened reporters and taunted officers.

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Cleanup begins Monday, Aug. 11, 2014 after a night of unrest following a candle-light vigil for 18-y …

Deanel Trout, a 14-year resident of Ferguson, was convinced the troublemakers were largely from outside Ferguson and that they used Brown's death and the vigil as an opportunity to steal.

"I can understand the anger and unrest, but I can't understand the violence and looting," Trout said.

Some people climbed atop police cars as officers with riot shields and batons stood stoically nearby, trying to restrict access to the most endangered areas.

Thirty-two people were arrested, police said. Two officers suffered minor injuries. There were no reports of civilians hurt.

On Monday, the scene of the shooting was marked with a makeshift memorial of candles and signs in the middle of the narrow street where Brown fell dead.

Brown's father, also named Michael Brown, visited the memorial Monday, at one point straightening a wooden cross. He abruptly left after gunshots rang out a block away. There were no reports of injuries from that gunfire.

The person who was with Brown has not been arrested or charged, and it was not clear if he was armed, Jackson said. Blood samples were taken from Brown and the officer for toxicology tests, which can take weeks to complete.

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Associated Press writers Alan Scher Zagier in St. Louis and Eric Tucker in Washington and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.