Kiev claimed yesterday that its troops were continuing to push deep into rebel-held city Lugansk — shortly after admitting that one of its military jets had been shot down by the separatists.

Military spokesman Oleksiy Dmitrashkovsky said that the anti-Kiev rebels had downed a fighter plane over the Lugansk region after it launched an attack on them.

Mr Dmitrashkovsky said the pilot had safely ejected, though another spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said that the status of the pilot was not clear.

Kiev’s national security council said government forces captured a police station in Lugansk on Saturday after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighbourhood.

The government’s shelling of Lugansk and other rebel stronghold Donetsk, where at least 10 civilians were killed on Saturday, has created a serious humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine, where rebels seized government buildings and declared independence after a fascist-backed coup in Kiev.

But Kiev has blocked humanitarian aid to the region, leaving a 270-vehicle convoy stuck in Russia for days.

Sixteen lorries edged closer to the border yesterday but showed no signs of crossing, though a large X-ray machine did arrive to begin inspecting the cargo.

The Red Cross, which will distribute the aid, said on Saturday that the lack of security guarantees on all sides was causing the hold-up.

Meanwhile, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Zakharchenko boasted that new military equipment was on its way from Russia, along with 1,200 fighters who have been trained in the country.

In the past rebel commanders have complained that Russia is not doing enough to support them, despite Western claims that the uprising is directed from Moscow.

Russia and Kiev opened new talks hosted by Berlin yesterday in hopes of finding common ground for a ceasefire

nThe international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 are expected to produce a preliminary report in around two weeks.

Reports from the investigation and anonymous US intelligence analysts have suggested that the blast pattern on the wreckage is consistent with an air-to-air missile, contradicting early claims by Western powers that it had been shot from the ground.