Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

"We are ready for a ceasefire to prevent the proliferation of a humanitarian disaster in Donbass," Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's republic said in a statement, referring to the area of eastern Ukraine where combat is being waged.

He warned that Donetsk, the main industrial hub which is the centre of the rebel resistance, faced a lack of food, water, and electricity, but said the rebels were ready to defend the city of around one million people.

"In the event of a storm of the city the number of victims will increase by magnitude. We have no humanitarian corridors. There is no supply of medicines ... food supplies are nearing their end," he said.

Ukrainian officials have said they are ready to agree a ceasefire but on condition the rebels surrender their arms.

The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was unavailable for immediate comment on Zakharchenko's statement.

Earlier, Kiev said it had headed off an attempt by Russia to send troops into Ukraine under the guise of peacekeepers with the aim of provoking a large-scale military conflict, a statement Moscow dismissed as a "fairy tale".

Ukraine has made several similar statements about Russian aggression during months of conflict with separatists on its eastern border with Russia that it says are backed by Moscow, none of which have been independently verifiable.

Ukraine says it has been gradually tightening the noose around the rebels who are have now been pushed back into their redoubts of Donetsk and Luhansk on the border.