DHAKA: Leading American senators have called for the US to send weapons to help Ukraine fight what they say is "a Russian invasion".

Robert Menendez, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Russia's President Vladimir Putin must face a cost for his "aggression".

Senator John McCain said: "This is not an incursion. This is an invasion."

Earlier, Putin called for talks to discuss the matter of "statehood" for eastern Ukraine.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in April following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula a month before. Some 2,600 people have died since April.

Pro-Russian separatists have been gaining ground on Ukrainian forces in recent days, in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and further south around the port of Mariupol.

** Putin ‘urges talks on statehood for east Ukraine’

BDST: 0921 HRS, SEP 01,2014