Russia will supply natural gas to the restive southeastern Ukrainian regions, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday.

"The Ministry of Energy and (Russian energy giant) Gazprom should prepare proposals on humanitarian gas supplies to these regions," Medvedev told a government meeting, saying that people there should not get frozen.

Meanwhile, the prime minister ordered the Russian Emergencies Ministry to deliver food and medicines to Donetsk and Lugansk regions, including the strategic transport hub of Debaltseve, from where about 90 percent of Ukrainian government troops have been withdrawn.

At 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday local time (1300 GMT), Kiev cut off its gas supplies to the rebel-controlled regions in southeastern Ukraine, which was considered a political move by the rebels.

"By cutting off gas, Kiev is escalating tensions and trying to spread panic. This is political and economic pressure," Gennady Tsypkalov, prime minister of the self-claimed Lugansk People's Republic, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

Andrei Purgin, parliament speaker of the self-claimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said natural gas reserves in the southeastern regions are to be exhausted at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday local time.

According to Purgin, the authorities of the DPR are considering the possibility of switching to the Russian gas supply network, and are dealing with the relevant technical problems. Endi

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