Speaking at a news conference in Moscow on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the draft resolution to be submitted to the Security Council later in the day would call for an immediate end to the violence in eastern Ukraine and "to immediately create an aid corridor along which peaceful citizens can leave the regions where military activity is happening if they want."

He also said the resolution called for "every assistance to the activities of the International Red Cross and other international humanitarian organizations in southeastern Ukraine."

Russia holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this June.

Lavrov was speaking just hours after after at least two people were killed in an explosion in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk. Pro-Russian separatists told news agencies the blast was the result of an air strike by Ukrainian government forces. Kyiv, denied this, instead blaming the rebels.

Camp attacked

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's border guard agency said five pro-Russia separatists had been killed and eight injured when rebels attacked one of its camps in Luhansk.

A spokesman for the agency said seven border guards were injured. A rebel spokesman for confirmed only one injured separatist fighter.

News agency reports suggest there have been two waves of attacks on the camp, with the first involving around 100 pro-Russian insurgents, and the second, a few hours later, involving several hundred. There was no indication that the fighting had ended by late Monday afternoon, local time.

Fresh fighting was also reported in Slovyansk, a separatist stronghold in the Donetsk region on Monday.

Little common ground between NATO and Russia

Meanwhile, a meeting in Brussels between Russia's envoy to NATO and ambassadors from the Western military alliance's member states showed there was still little common ground between the two sides.

Russia's envoy, Alexander Grushko accused NATO of encouraging the Ukrainian government to use force in eastern Ukraine and hampering efforts to find a peaceful solution.

NATO's spokeswoman, Oana Lungescu, said the meeting showed "that there are fundamentally different views on this crisis, on its origins, on what is happening now and on how it should be resolved."

The crisis in Ukraine is to be a major topic of discussion when Nato defense ministers meet in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday.

pfd/ipj (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)