A RUSSIAN television reporter died of his wounds yesterday after being rushed to hospital in Ukraine’s Lugansk region.

Russian state media group VGTRK reporter Igor Kornelyuk received serious stomach wounds after being hit by shrapnel.

A Lugansk separatist spokesman said Mr Kornelyuk and his sound technician were caught by a grenade attack staged by Kiev government forces in the border region.

The spokesman said the fate of about 15 anti-Kiev fighters who were with the Russian television crew at the time remained unclear.

At the United Nations, Russia said tens of thousands of people had fled across its border to escape violence and signalled it has been delivering humanitarian assistance to the region without Kiev’s consent.

Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow had found “ways and means” to get humanitarian help into Ukraine.

Mr Churkin said towns and villages were being attacked daily with artillery, tanks and planes, that “hundreds of people including children were killed in and around Lugansk and Sloviansk” and that many towns have no drinking water because energy and water supplies had been targeted. 

He said 60,000 Ukrainian refugees are now in Russia.

UN aid chief Valerie Amos briefed the security council on Ukraine.

Ms Amos told council members that the humanitarian situation was deteriorating and could deteriorate further.

Russia has circulated a new resolution in an effort to get the deeply divided security council to address the worsening humanitarian situation.

But Western council members say they do not believe there is a crisis requiring security council action.