SEPARATIST rebels established firm control of the strategically positioned south-eastern Ukraine town of Novoazovsk today.

There was no fighting in the town and rebel checkpoints on its outskirts were turning away Western reporters.

The rebels said that they were now turning their attention to an advance on the Azov Sea port of Mariupol.

Pro-government militias claimed that the rebels were being backed by thousands of Russian soldiers.

“There is military equipment in Novoazovsk which came across the border two days ago from Russia,” alleged a member the so-called Azov battalion.

“The equipment is carrying the flags of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) rebels but they are regular Russian forces,” he said.

The Azov battalion is openly neonazi and uses the Wolfsangel (Wolf’s Hook) symbol on its banner. 

Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko admitted that Russian citizens were fighting in rebel ranks but denied Russian government involvement, insisting that most were former soldiers or current personnel on leave.

“There have been around 3,000-4,000 of them in our ranks,” he said, adding that the rebels’ struggle would have been much harder without them.

“There are many in the Russian military that prefer to spend their leave among us, brothers who are fighting for their freedom, rather than on a beach.”

Meanwhile, Western voices continued to insist Russia was behind the new rebel initiatives.

The United States claimed that Russia was directing the counter offensive.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said a Russian-directed counter offensive “is likely under way in Donetsk and Lugansk.”

“Clearly that is of deep concern to us,” she said.

And the Kiev government insisted that Russian soldiers in armoured vehicles had crossed the border with columns of tanks.

The separatists’ resurgence has prompted Kiev to call on Nato for help.

Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on Nato to be decisive when the alliance holds a summit in Wales next week.

“We expect our Western partners and the alliance to provide practical help and take crucial decisions at the summit in September,” he said.