Moscow on Wednesday praised Kiev's law on self-rule for the war-torn eastern Ukraine as a "step in the right direction" and expressed the hope the rebel-held regions would develop cross-border cooperation with Russia.

"In Russia this document is considered a step in the right direction which corresponds to the spirit of agreements cemented in the Geneva declaration between Russia, Ukraine, the United States and European Union from April 17 of this year, as well as the Berlin declaration from July 2 of this year," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Canada announced fresh sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, targeting four senior Russian army generals, a bank and five arms manufacturers, over Moscow's support for rebels in Ukraine.

In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said this 12th round of economic sanctions was motivated by Moscow's continued "aggression" in eastern Ukraine.

Zimbabwean's veteran president Robert Mugabe voiced his support for Russia on Tuesday, describing Western sanctions against Moscow as "illegal".

"If sanctions are to apply they must be approved by the U.N. and those that are being imposed on the Russian Federation have not," the 90-year-old said after meeting visiting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Fighting in Ukraine has driven nearly 370,000 people to flee to neighboring countries, most of them to Russia, the U.N. said Tuesday.

"Some 366,866 people have fled to neighboring countries, the vast majority to Russia," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N.'s humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

Russia's defense minister called on Tuesday for the deployment of reinforcements to Crimea and southern Russia, citing the worsening crisis in Ukraine and the buildup of foreign forces nearby.

Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of defense ministry top brass it was a "priority" to deploy a "full and self-reliant group of troops in the direction of Crimea", Russian news agencies reported.

A rebel leader on Tuesday dismissed Kiev giving the separatist east limited self-rule, saying Ukraine's eastern Donbass region was no longer part of the ex-Soviet country.

"Complete self-rule will be introduced in Donbass, this territory no longer has anything to do with Ukraine," Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told AFP.

Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday adopted legislation granting limited self-rule to parts of the pro-Russian east as they prepared to ratify a landmark EU pact at the heart of the country's deadliest crisis since independence.

Russian Ambassador Alexander Zasypkin revealed that Moscow decided to provide Lebanon with military assistance promised four years ago after it was encouraged by the Saudi grant to Lebanon.

“The Saudi grant was an incentive to revive the Russian grant and put it on the move,” Zasypkin told An Nahar newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

Neither Iran's Hassan Rouhani nor Russia's Vladimir Putin feature on President Barack Obama's "dance card" of meetings with foreign leaders at the U.N. next week, the White House said Monday.

Speculation about possible talks between Obama and Rouhani in particular has been mounting because the counterparts spoke by phone last year on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly.

A proposed sale of Israeli weapons including drones to Ukraine has been blocked for fear of antagonizing Russia, Channel Two television reported on Monday.

The broadcaster said a Ukrainian delegation had visited Israel with a view to acquiring military hardware including drones to use against pro-Russian separatists.