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Pro-Russian Rebels Attack Ukrainian Patrol Boat

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Within hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine to participate in talks on a political solution to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, land-based pro-Russian rebels attacked a Ukrainian border guard vessel patrolling in the Azov Sea.

The attack took place amid heightened concerns that the pro-Russian separatists are trying to take control of the land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed last March.

A Ukrainian spokesman said Sunday's attack was the first such incident in the fighting, which began in mid-April after Russia annexed Crimea.

***CBN ministries are at work in Ukraine in the midst of the fighting. Reporter Heather Sells recently spoke with Terry Meeuwsen of Orphan's Promise about the situation on the ground.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the parties participating in Monday's talks in Belarus to push for a ceasefire.

Speaking to students at Moscow State Institute of International Relations on the first day of school, Lavrov denied Russian military involvement.

He said Russia is calling for "an exclusively peaceful settlement of this severe crisis, this tragedy."

Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and John McCain, R-Ariz., urged the Obama administration to impose stronger sanctions against Russia and provide weapons to Ukraine against Russian aggression.

"This is no longer the question of some rebel separatists; this is a direct invasion by Russia. And we must recognize it as that," Menendez said, speaking from Kiev to CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

McCain told CBS's "Face the Nation" that Russia could threaten more eastern European countries, such as Moldova and other states that were formerly Soviet republics.

"This is not an incursion; this is an invasion," McCain said. "Give them the weapons they need, give them the wherewithal they need, give them the ability to fight. They will fight."

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