DONETSK, Ukraine/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine ignored a public call by Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone a referendum on self-rule, declaring they would go ahead on Sunday with a vote that could lead to war. 
 
 The decision, which contradicted the conciliatory tone set by Putin just a day earlier, caused consternation in the West, which fears the referendum will tear Ukraine apart. 
 
 U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said Russia was heading down a "dangerous and irresponsible path" and the situation in Ukraine was "extremely combustible". 
 
 Denis Pushilin, a leader of the self-declared separatist Donetsk People's Republic, expressed gratitude to Putin but said the "People's Council" had voted unanimously on Thursday to hold the plebiscite as planned. 
 
 "Civil war has already begun," he told reporters. "The referendum can put a stop to it and start a political process." A man holding a Kalashnikov stood behind him. 
 
 Political analysts said Putin may have expected the rebels to go ahead with the referendum, showing that they were not under his orders. By distancing himself from a process that will not be recognized by the West, Putin may also hope to avoid further sanctions as earlier measures begin hitting the economy. 
 
 His spokesman said the Kremlin needed more information about the rebels' decision. He also said the rebel statement came only after the Western-backed government in Kiev had declared it would press on with its military operation, implying that Ukraine was to blame for the rebels' refusal to heed Putin. 
 
 Russian financial markets sank after surging on Wednesday when Putin unexpectedly called for the vote to be delayed and declared that troops were withdrawing from Ukraine's border. 
 
 NO SIGN 
 
 NATO and the United States both said they saw no sign of a Russian withdrawal from the frontier. 
 
 When NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen tweeted as much, the Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted back that "those with a blind eye" should read Putin's statement. 
 
 NATO has accused Moscow of using special forces in the separatist takeover of mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine after annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March. 
 
 Putin acknowledged his troops were active in Crimea after initially denying any role there but says they are not involved in eastern Ukraine, a densely populated steel and coal belt responsible for roughly a third of Ukraine's industrial output. 
 
 About 40 armed men attacked a Ukrainian border post on the Russian frontier on Thursday and tried to seize it, but were beaten off by Ukrainian forces, the border guard in Kiev said. 
 
 Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Putin's conciliatory remarks made him suspect Moscow was planning some form of "skirmish" to discredit Kiev when the country celebrates Victory Day on Friday. 
 
 Ukraine had tightened security for the May 9 anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, Yatseniuk said. 
 
 Russian state TV has portrayed Ukraine'e pro-Western government as fascists, and Yatseniuk said he feared Moscow would stage an incident involving veterans who fought with the Soviet army in defeating the Nazis. 
 
 "There is no doubt about this ... and Russian television will show footage of rampant nationalists beating up veterans. Russian propaganda," he told "Fifth Channel" television, quoted by Interfax-Ukraine. 
 
 Putin's call to delay the referendum, followed so quickly by the rebel decision to go ahead with it, have complicated U.S. and European efforts to agree a common policy that might lead to tighter economic sanctions on Russia. 
 
 The European Union said shortly before the referendum announcement that the plebiscite "would have no democratic legitimacy and could only further worsen the situation". 
 
 The EU has laid the groundwork for possible sanctions against Russian companies, including energy giants, over Ukraine and diplomats said they could decide which on Monday, but that, if any, they would only be those linked to Crimea. 
 
 Last month's U.S. and Canadian sanctions were tougher than the EU's and Moscow said on Thursday it had retaliated by expanding the list of U.S. and Canadian officials barred from Russia but would not give details. 
 
 ROUND TABLE 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed by phone on Thursday joint efforts to defuse the crisis, which also involve the EU and OSCE European security organization, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said. 
 
 In Washington, the State Department said Kerry had also spoken to Yatseniuk, who proposed with Ukraine's interim president the creation of a "Round Table" to resolve the conflict. This would draw in political forces and civil groups in all regions, with international mediators asked to help. 
 
 The mediators took their peace proposals to Kiev on Thursday. The draft "road map", seen by Reuters, takes no direct view on the referendum but said national elections planned by the Kiev leadership for May 25 were vital to stabilizing the country. 
 
 Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the plan, drawn up by the Swiss chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had "some common ground" with its own proposals. 
 
 The referendum has become seen as a vital step by many in Ukraine's industrial east, fired up over what the rebels, and Moscow, call the "fascist" government in Kiev that took over after street protests ousted a pro-Moscow president in February. 
 
 "You have no idea how many armed people there are in Donetsk right now," Roman Lyagin, the 33-year-old head of the self-proclaimed republic's election commission, told Reuters at his headquarters behind barricades of tyres and car bumpers in the occupied regional administration in Donetsk. 
 
 "There is no man who can move this referendum," he said. 
 
 Ballots, printed in Donetsk, have been distributed across the rebel zone, smuggled through Ukrainian army checkpoints. Lyagin says more than three million people are eligible to vote. 
 
 Artyom, a rebel at a roadblock in the rebel-held eastern town of Slaviansk, said of the referendum decision: "This is great news. We need to have our say." 
 
 GREATER AUTONOMY 
 
 While many Russian speakers in Ukraine fear discrimination under the new leadership, the extent of support for the separatists - many of whom say their ultimate aim is to join Russia - is not so clear. Opinion polls say a majority wish to remain in Ukraine, but with a far greater degree of autonomy. 
 
 Putin said his call for the vote's postponement would open the way to negotiations on cooling down a crisis that has led to dozens of deaths in clashes between troops and separatists in eastern Ukraine and rival groups in the southern port of Odessa. 
 
 On Thursday he again blamed Kiev, saying its "irresponsible politics" had caused the crisis while in the Ukrainian capital, officials said the government would not talk to "terrorists" - their word for the separatists. 
 
 Maria Lipman, an expert at the Carnegie Center think-tank in Moscow, said Putin would have known that his request for the referendum to be postponed would be rebuffed. 
 
 "But this can be used to show that the people in Ukraine's east are not Russians, take no orders from Russia, that Russia exercises no control over them because they only do what they want to do," she said. "He has also distanced Russia from the referendum, which has a completely unclear status and will not be recognized by the West." 
 
 Western leaders have threatened more sanctions if the presidential election on May 25 is disrupted. Putin said on Wednesday it was "a step in the right direction"; on Thursday, Lavrov said the election would be "senseless" if Kiev did not end its military operation against the separatists. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice in Slaviansk, Ralph Boulton in Kiev, Steve Gutterman, Vladimir Soldatkin and Thomas Grove in Moscow, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, Lionel Laurent in Paris, Adrian Croft in Brussels, David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Giles Elgood and David Stamp) ||||| DONETSK/MARIUPOL Ukraine A woman died and at least four people were wounded when fighting flared again in eastern Ukraine overnight into Sunday, jeopardizing a ceasefire struck less than two days earlier between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists. 
 
 The accord, brokered by envoys from Ukraine, the separatist leadership, Russia and Europe's OSCE security watchdog, is part of a peace plan intended to end a five-month conflict that has killed nearly 3,000 people and caused the sharpest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War. 
 
 Shelling resumed near the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov late on Saturday, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had agreed in a phone call that the truce was holding. 
 
 Fighting also broke out early on Sunday on the northern outskirts of rebel-held Donetsk, the region's industrial hub. A Reuters reporter saw plumes of black smoke filling the sky near the airport, which has been in the hands of government forces. 
 
 "Listen to the sound of the ceasefire," joked one armed rebel. "There's a proper battle going on there." 
 
 The two cities then turned quiet for much of Sunday, but a Reuters witness in the early evening reported several mortar blasts within the city confines of Donetsk. They damaged a bridge where the rebels had erected a roadblock. 
 
 In a new report on the conflict, Amnesty International accused both the rebels and Ukrainian militia of war crimes and it published satellite images it said showed a build-up of Russian armor and artillery in eastern Ukraine. 
 
 "Our evidence shows that Russia is fuelling the conflict, both through direct interference and by supporting the separatists in the east. Russia must stop the steady flow of weapons and other support to an insurgent force heavily implicated in gross human rights violations," Amnesty's secretary-general, Salil Shetty, said in a statement. 
 
 Moscow denies dispatching forces or arming the rebels despite what NATO says is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. 
 
 WESTERN ARMS - OR NOT? 
 
 Poroshenko spent Thursday and Friday at a NATO summit in Wales at which U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders urged Putin to pull forces out of Ukraine. NATO also approved wide-ranging plans to boost its defenses in Eastern Europe in response to the Ukraine crisis. 
 
 A senior aide to Poroshenko, Yuri Lytsenko, wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that Kiev had reached agreement at the summit on receiving weapons and military advisers from five allies - the United States, France, Italy, Poland and Norway. 
 
 He gave no further details, but four of the five countries denied offering such assistance. 
 
 A senior Obama administration said the United States "has not changed policy" toward Ukraine, which thus far has been to provide only non-lethal military assistance. 
 
 The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not appear to rule out the possibility that Washington might at some point choose to offer arms to Kiev. 
 
 The official said the United States had so far given $70 million in security assistance to Ukraine and noted that U.S. President Barack Obama had said he was "looking at what more we can do." 
 
 Officials in Italy, Norway and Poland issued similar denials. 
 
 "Italy, along with other EU and NATO countries, is preparing a package of non-lethal military aid such as bullet-proof vests and helmets for Ukraine," an official at Italy's Defence Ministry said. 
 
 In France, an aide at the president's Elysee Palace declined to comment. 
 
 NATO officials have said the alliance will not send arms to non-member Ukraine, but they have also said individual allies may do so if they wish. A NATO official contacted by Reuters on Sunday about the Lytsenko comment reiterated that line. 
 
 Russia is fiercely opposed to closer ties between Ukraine and the NATO alliance. 
 
 The Ukraine conflict has revived talk of a new Cold War as the West accuses Putin of deliberately destabilizing the former Soviet republic of 46 million people. Ukraine's prime minister accused Putin of striving to recreate the Soviet Union. 
 
 Putin says he is defending the interests of ethnic Russians facing discrimination and oppression in Ukraine since protesters toppled Kiev's pro-Russian president in February. 
 
 Putin has seen his popularity in Russia soar since Moscow annexed Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which has a Russian majority, in March. 
 
 MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS 
 
 Both the rebels and the Ukrainian military insisted on Sunday they were strictly observing the ceasefire and blamed their opponents for any violations. 
 
 "As far as I know, the Ukrainian side is not observing the ceasefire. We have wounded on our side at various points. We are observing the ceasefire," Vladimir Antyufeyev, deputy premier of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic", told Reuters. 
 
 Earlier, government forces said they had come under artillery fire east of Mariupol, a crucial port for Ukrainian steel exports. In the days before the ceasefire, they had been trying to repel a big rebel offensive against the city. 
 
 The shelling in Mariupol claimed the first civilian casualty since the ceasefire began. Local officials confirmed the death of a 33-year-old woman early on Sunday and said at least four other people had been wounded. 
 
 "They, terrorists, Russians, are trying to scare us. They have no respect for the ceasefire. They are lying all the time. They are people with no honor," said Slavik, a Ukrainian soldier armed with a machinegun. 
 
 A Reuters reporter at the scene, a few km (miles) from the center of the city of 500,000, saw fires raging just before midnight on Saturday as Ukrainian reinforcements raced east toward the demarcation line separating the two sides. 
 
 Poroshenko agreed to the ceasefire after Ukraine accused Russia of sending troops and arms onto its territory to bolster the separatists after they suffered heavy losses over the summer to a Ukrainian government offensive. 
 
 The peace roadmap agreed on Friday includes an exchange of prisoners of war and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for refugees and aid. There was no sign of progress on either plan on Sunday. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome, Marcin Goclowski in Warsaw, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, and Julien Ponthus in Paris; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Sonya Hepinstall, Hugh Lawson and Peter Cooney) ||||| In an interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for immediate talks between pro-Russian rebels and Kiev, on issues including “statehood” for eastern Ukraine. (Reuters) 
 
 In an interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for immediate talks between pro-Russian rebels and Kiev, on issues including “statehood” for eastern Ukraine. (Reuters) 
 
 Russian officials pressed Ukraine on Monday to declare a cease-fire with separatists, but Ukrainians say they are locked in a war not just against the rebels but also against Russia — on behalf of Europe. 
 
 “A great war has come, the likes of which Europe has not seen since the Second World War,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said on his Facebook page Monday, adding that the fight must go on to “show that Ukrainians are not going to give up.” 
 
 Lost territory, trapped soldiers and increasing reports of Russian tanks and troops operating in eastern Ukraine have changed the course of events in the past few days. Newly emboldened separatist forces are bearing down on strategic targets, such as the port city of Mariupol — which the Ukrainian military maintains it can defend — and the airport in Luhansk, where troops retreated in the face of a rebel onslaught Monday. 
 
 Ukraine and its Western allies have surmised that Russian forces are significantly aiding pro-Russian separatists. 
 
 “Russia is intervening overtly in Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday, announcing that the alliance would design a “readiness action plan,” complete with a rapid-response force, at its upcoming summit in Wales to respond to “Russia’s aggressive behavior.” 
 
 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Aug. 29, 2014 title slide date slide Aug. 28, 2014 Skip Ad × Russian soldiers advance into Ukraine View Photos Shellings and protests continue in Ukraine as the military conflict escalates in the east. Meanwhile, European Union leaders are considering fresh sanctions against Russia after reports of fighting in Ukraine. Caption Shellings and protests continue in Ukraine as the military conflict escalates in the east. Aug. 30, 2014 Ukrainian troops evacuate from the rebel-held town of Starobesheve, eastern Ukraine. Sergei Grits/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 The summit will coincide with a self-imposed deadline from the European Union to announce further economic sanctions against Russia . European leaders agreed over the weekend to slap Russia with new measures within a week — unless it pulled back from Ukraine. 
 
 But Russia maintains that the E.U. threats are weak and that it is not militarily involved in the Ukraine conflict . 
 
 “Let’s sit down and talk, not threaten sanctions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during an address to university students in Moscow on Monday, pushing for a cease-fire and dismissing Europe’s threats as “sanction inertia.” 
 
 Lavrov also scoffed at the idea that pro-Russian militias would surrender their weapons to Kiev, which he said would be tantamount to “destroying themselves,” even as he pledged that “there will be no military intervention” from Russia. 
 
 But Ukraine maintains that an intervention is well underway. 
 
 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday accused Russia of launching “direct and open aggression” against Ukraine, which he said changed “the situation in the zone of conflict in a radical way.” 
 
 A spokesman for Ukraine’s military said Russian forces fired on troops at the Luhansk airport Monday and are supporting the separatists surrounding Ilovaysk, where hundreds of Ukrainian troops have been trapped for more than a week. Russian officials have accused Kiev of not taking advantage of the separatists’ offer to let the troops out via a humanitarian corridor, in exchange for disarming. 
 
 The presidents of the European Commission and Ukraine cautioned Russia on Saturday against escalating the conflict in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters) 
 
 During a Monday visit to Kiev, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called for the international community to respond by better arming Ukrainian troops. 
 
 “It’s great to provide night-vision goggles,” Menendez said at a news conference, referencing one form of assistance the United States approved to send to Ukrainian troops this summer. “But what can you do if all you can do is see them but you can’t defend yourself against their attacks?” 
 
 He dismissed concerns that arming Ukraine would spur a negative response from Russia, listing significant events of the conflict, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March , the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the recent battles in the east, to make his case 
 
 “Russia has done all of this without any provocation,” he said. “From my perspective, this is a Russian fight against Europe being fought out on Ukrainian territory — everything [Russian President Vladimir] Putin doesn’t care for he sees in the Ukrainian people’s desire to turn to the West.” 
 
 Pro-Russian rebels are stepping up their demands, too. Ahead of a meeting in Minsk, Belarus, among Kiev representatives, separatists and their interlocutors, Andrei Purgin — a rebel leader in Donetsk — told the Russian news service Interfax that separatists intended to seek “recognition of our independence” during the talks. The Monday discussions yielded little progress. 
 
 Putin said in a television interview that aired Sunday that “statehood” for eastern Ukraine should be part of talks to resolve the conflict, but he has repeatedly insisted that he wants greater autonomy for the region, not the breakup of Ukraine — despite Russia’s seizure of Crimea. 
 
 In the interview, Putin scoffed at Europe’s support for the Kiev government, arguing that it ran counter to purported European values. 
 
 “What are the so-called European values?” Putin asked. “Maintaining the coup, the armed seizure of power and the suppression of dissent with the help of the armed forces? Are those modern European values? 
 
 “Our colleagues need to remember their own ideals,” he said. 
 
 Putin stressed that a resolution to the conflict “largely depends on the political will of today’s Ukrainian leadership,” but said he did not expect the fighting to stop before Ukraine’s parliamentary elections, set for Oct. 26. 
 
 Once elected, Ukraine’s new parliament is expected to vote on a law to end the country’s nonaligned status, paving the way for it to eventually apply for NATO membership. 
 
 Rasmusssen told reporters Monday that Ukraine’s chances of being adopted as a member depend on whether the country can meet various criteria. 
 
 Annie Gowen in Mariupol contributed to this report.
– Separatists in Eastern Ukraine are starting to complain that Moscow has sold them out, as they prepare for what the New York Times is declaring their "last stand." As they retreated toward Donetsk yesterday, insurgents blew up two road bridges and a railroad bridge behind them. An emboldened Ukraine today said that it would not reopen ceasefire negotiations until the rebels had laid down their weapons entirely, the AP reports. The once undermanned and outgunned Ukrainian force is now noticeably better armed, using buses and pickup trucks alongside its armored vehicles to transport what the Telegraph describes as a "motley mix" of police, special forces, and militiamen. Ukraine says it has succeeded in sealing the Russian border, preventing troops and weapons from flowing to the rebels. But Vladimir Putin has been suspiciously silent, ignoring the separatists' increasingly urgent pleas for help, and many are speculating that he aims to cut his losses, having already taken the real prize of Crimea, the Wall Street Journal reports. Observers believe Moscow has ruled out any military intervention, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov struck a decidedly peaceful tone at a news conference, saying, "A quick end to the bloodshed is in our common interest." But one US official cautioned against declaring victory. "There is only one person who knows what Putin is planning," he said, "and that is Putin."