Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he wants to hold a referendum on his conflict-torn country joining NATO, in comments to a German newspaper published Thursday.

He said 54 percent of Ukrainians now favoured membership, up from 16 percent four years ago, speaking with the Berliner Morgenpost and other regional daily newspapers.

"As president, I have to follow the will of the people and will organise a referendum on the question of NATO accession," he said, without giving a timeline.

"And if Ukrainians vote for it, I will do everything for a membership in the Atlantic alliance," he added, reiterating Kiev's previously stated wish to join NATO.

Renewed fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels claimed at least 13 lives early this week.

The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people since 2014 -- more than half of them civilians -- and plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

The Kremlin denies backing the insurgents and only admits that Russian "volunteers" and off-duty soldiers have entered the war zone of their own free will.

Ukraine probes Black Sea plane spat with Russia
Kiev (AFP) Feb 2, 2017 -

Ukraine on Thursday opened a criminal probe into an incident in which it said one of its military planes was shot at over the Black Sea, but which Moscow condemned as a "dangerous flyby".

The general prosecutor in Kiev said in a statement that an attempted murder case had been launched after a Ukrainian Antonov-26 transport aircraft was shot at Wednesday during a training flight over the Black Sea, where Russia operates drilling rigs it took over following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The fuselage of the plane -- which Kiev insisted was over Ukrainian waters -- had a three-centimetre (1.2 inches) bullet hole, but its crew were not injured in the incident, Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said Wednesday.

Russia's defence ministry said late Wednesday that it had summoned Kiev's military attache in the country to complain over what it said were "two dangerous flybys at an extremely low altitude" over the drilling platforms.

"The actions of the Ukrainian plane are viewed as provocative," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

The incident comes after an upsurge in clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine that has left a reported 21 people dead since Sunday.

The fresh clashes in the industrial town of Avdiivka are the worst violence to hit the war-torn region in months.

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, sparking international condemnation.

Since then, a conflict between government troops and Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine's east has left nearly 10,000 people dead.

Since the annexation of Crimea, Russia has taken over Ukrainian companies in the region, including energy company Chernomorneftegaz which runs drilling operations in the Black Sea.