Toll mounts in east Ukraine as US mulls arming Kiev

KIEV, Feb 3 (AFP): Fears grew Tuesday of an escalation in the mounting bloodshed in east Ukraine as the United States mulled arming Kiev and pro-Russian rebels ordered a mass mobilisation.

At least 16 civilians and five government troops were killed over the past 24 hours in fierce clashes across the conflict zone, government and pro-Russian rebel officials said.

The ferocious fighting remains focused around the battleground town of Debaltseve, a strategic railway hub between the rebel strongholds Donetsk and Lugansk where separatists are fighting to encircle Ukrainian forces.

The latest casualties come as fighting has surged in recent weeks after separatists tore up a tenuous ceasefire deal and pushed into government-held territory.

Ukraine's government on Tuesday announced tough new rules limiting the documents Russians can use to enter the country in a move likely to stoke further tensions between Moscow and Kiev.

From March 1 Russians will no longer be able to enter Ukraine on their internal identity documents and will instead require a passport for overseas travel, a government decree said. Surveys estimate that over 70 percent of Russians do not possess such a document.

The United Nations said Tuesday the civilian death toll has risen by 224 in the past three weeks and that the total of those killed in the conflict since April now stands at over 5,358 people.

"Any further escalation will prove catastrophic for the 5.2 million people living in the midst of conflict in eastern Ukraine," warned UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

Concerns over the spiralling conflict come as Washington says it is seriously considering providing arms and more military equipment to Ukraine.

President Barak Obama's administration had previously ruled out sending weapons to Ukraine's government but the failure of economic sanctions to force Russia to halt alleged military support for the separatists has prompted a second look at the option, officials told AFP.

"What's being discussed is perhaps we should begin providing defensive weapons,defensive equipment, to Ukraine," a senior official said.

Washington so far has provided non-lethal assistance to Ukraine, including flak jackets, medical supplies, radios and night-vision goggles.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is to jet into Kiev on Thursday for meetings with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk but no official announcement on weapons deliveries is expected.

A Ukrainian diplomatic source told AFP that Kiev was hoping to get more "clarity" on its request for weapons following Kerry's visit and a raft of high-level meetings at an upcoming security conference in Munich.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of sending thousands of regular army troops and weapons to support the rebels and spearhead their latest offensive.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations but the rebels, however, appear to be equipped with the heavy weaponry of a regular army.