Kiev forces push into rebel city ahead of Russia, Ukraine talks

KIEV, Aug 17 (AFP): Ukrainian forces battled into a key rebel bastion as fresh claims that rocket launchers had crossed over from Russia stoked tensions Sunday ahead of talks between Kiev and Moscow's top diplomats.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France gathered for a snap meeting in Berlin, after Western leaders had scrambled frantically to contain the crisis in Ukraine.

Kiev's military said it hoisted the national flag over a district police station in a northeast suburb of the second-largest rebel bastion of Lugansk after a fierce battle with pro-Russian separatists Saturday.

Meanwhile: Heads resting on their bags as they wait in stifling heat in their van, 11 women sit stranded at the Ukrainian border as a dispute over a mammoth Russian aid convoy blocks their mission to reach relatives stuck inside besieged Lugansk.

"Do you know when the humanitarian convoy will pass? As long as it doesn't they are not letting us through," said one, named Olga.

The Ukrainian women -- a mixture of long-term residents in Russia and recent arrivals -- pulled up days ago to the border, racing to rebel-held Lugansk where their relatives were trying to stay alive as the Ukrainian army shelled the surrounded city.

But their van was sent away after a massive Russian humanitarian convoy arrived near the same crossing, and the women were now convinced the controversial cargo was effectively stopping them from getting to their loved ones.

"We are a humanitarian convoy just as well. We are bringing bread, milk and medicine to our families who are being shelled," said Irina, the youngest of the group who has tasked herself with finding her grandmothers in the city after having no news from them for a month.