The West on Friday blasted Moscow for unilaterally sending a controversial aid convoy to east Ukraine's rebel-held Lugansk in a move Kiev decried as an "invasion."

The European Union said it "deplored" Russia's decision to order in the convoy, which local officials said had begun arriving in Lugansk, without consent and called on Moscow to withdraw the trucks.

Russian authorities launched nationwide inspections of McDonald's restaurants Thursday after shutting three wildly-popular Moscow locations on apparent government orders aimed at striking back against biting Western sanctions.

It was the latest and arguably most resonant salvo in an escalating and economically-bruising trade war over a bloody conflict in Ukraine that has plunged East-West relations into what some have dubbed a "new Cold War".

Millions of black-clad Malaysians fell silent Friday in tribute to their 43 countrymen killed in the MH17 disaster as the first remains were brought home and laid to rest amid deep sorrow and anger.

A plane carrying the bodies of 20 Malaysian victims of flight MH17, which crashed in Ukraine in July, took off from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Dutch media reported.

There was no ceremony for the departure from Schiphol airport, local news agency ANP reported, with the plane to land in Malaysia on Friday, which has been declared a day of national mourning.

Ukraine's president said he will "talk peace" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by demanding the withdrawal of pro-Kremlin militants from the war-torn east when they meet next week for the first time in months.

Usually, it is the United States that doles out rebukes over human rights abuses to the troublesome country of the day.

A Ukrainian warplane was blown out of the sky over rebel-held territory Wednesday as fierce clashes between government troops and pro-Russian insurgents left dozens of civilians dead.

Fighting intensified as Kiev appeared to ramp up a deadly offensive to crush the ailing rebellion in the east ahead of a fresh round of diplomacy that will see the presidents of Russia and Ukraine meet next week for the first time in months.

"The bus for Irkutsk leaves in an hour", the loudspeaker blares. Messages broadcast over the tent camp remind refugees from Ukraine's civil war that their "new life" awaits them here in Russia.

Just a few kilometers inside the border, with artillery fire popping in the far distance, those who have fled the fighting lean against a dusty Lada car and watch a bus pull in to carry other refugees away.

Fierce fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels left dozens of civilians dead on Wednesday with artillery pounding central Donetsk as Ukrainian troops pushed on with a bloody offensive.

Deadly battles to crush the ailing rebellion appeared to intensify ahead of a fresh round of diplomacy that will see the presidents of Russia and Ukraine meet next week for the first time in months.

The Russian defense ministry said Wednesday it was conducting fresh military exercises in the south of the country as fighting intensified between rebels and government forces in Ukraine.

The major test of long-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems will take place at the Ashuluk base in Russia's southern Astrakhan region, several hundred kilometers (miles) from the fighting in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman told Interfax news agency.