MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Kiev of ordering renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine including the indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas - illegal under international law.

Putin claimed on Friday in speech to his security council published on the Kremlin's website, that the Ukrainian government had given orders to reignite fighting "all along the perimeter of contact between the two sides".

He said: "The result: dozens of dead and wounded and not only among soldiers on both sides but, more tragically, among the civilian population."

"These are children, the elderly, women."

"They use artillery, multiple rocket launchers and aircraft indiscriminately - right in densely populated areas," he added.

The governments in Moscow and Kiev have been engaged in a war of words since a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine broke down on Jan. 13.

Tensions increased when Ukraine's military confirmed it had abandoned Donetsk airport to separatist militias on Wednesday and on Thursday when at least eight people were killed and 13 wounded when two mortar rounds landed at a crowded bus station in Donetsk, according to the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

More than 5,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict which began last April, according to the UN.