Britain must urgently rebuild defense capabilities abandoned after the Cold War to face growing global threats, including from Russia, a committee of lawmakers warned on Tuesday.

The Commons Defense Committee, which examines the spending and policy of the defense ministry, said nuclear capacity, tanks, warships and aircrafts were needed to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin.

American lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Monday to urge President Barack Obama to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to defend itself against Russian "aggression."

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the resolution in a broadly bipartisan 348-48 vote, heaping further pressure on the Obama administration to end its delays in providing weapons and other heavy military equipment to Kiev forces.

The 33-year-old son of toppled ex-Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych drowned after his car fell through ice on Russia's Lake Baikal, his former party said Monday.

The Party of Regions' official website announced the "tragic death of our colleague and former MP...Victor Yanukovych Jr." alongside a picture of a rose and a candle.

Ukraine on Monday accused pro-Russian separatists of firing heavy Grad rockets in violation of a shaky ceasefire between the two sides, as seven people were reported injured in fresh clashes.

Six Ukrainian soldiers were wounded during fighting over the last 24 hours, army spokesman Andriy Lysenko said, stoking fears of an escalation in violence following a month of relative peace since the signing of the agreement.

Russia has more claim to Crimea than Britain has to the Falkland Islands, a senior Russian lawmaker insisted Sunday as London again denounced Moscow's "illegal annexation" of the peninsula.

"Attention London: Crimea has far more reason to be in Russia than the Falklands have to be part of Great Britain," said Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee on Twitter.

Artillery fire rocked the outskirts of the rebel-held east Ukraine city of Donetsk on Sunday in the latest clashes to rattle an internationally-brokered ceasefire between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev.

The sound of intensive explosions erupted at 9:00 am (0600 GMT) and appeared to come from the area around Donetsk airport, one of several flashpoints where shelling has rumbled on despite the February truce deal that has eased fighting around much of eastern Ukraine.

When Andrei Krasilnikov hugged his wife good-bye last week and climbed onto a bus to take him back to the frontline in eastern Ukraine, his motive was typical of those fighting for Kiev -- to defend his family and future from what he perceives as Russian aggression.

What sets him apart from his brothers-in-arms is his Russian citizenship.

Three pro-Russian separatists have been killed in fresh clashes close to the strategic Ukrainian-held port of Mariupol despite a shaky ceasefire aimed at ending nearly a year of fighting, rebels said on Friday.

"Three fighters were killed and six wounded" in the village of Shyrokyne, the official rebel news agency said on its website.

Mammoth Russian military drills ordered by President Vladimir Putin from the Pacific to the Black Sea are designed to send a message to the West: keep your distance and don't overplay your hand on Ukraine, observers say.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis more than a year ago, Russia has flexed its muscles with a series of war games but the scale of the latest military exercises -- including sending nuclear bombers to Crimea and ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad in central Europe -- has triggered a series of new questions.

Russia proposed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution Thursday asking Kiev to "immediately start consultations" with pro-Russian separatists on elections within their eastern Ukraine strongholds.

The Russian text cites a paragraph from a February peace accord, which "provides for discussion and agreement on questions related to local elections in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions."