Nato summit: Russia criticised over Ukraine crisis
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (2nd from left) met Western leaders ahead of the summit
Western leaders have criticised Russia for its "destabilising" influence on the crisis in eastern Ukraine, as they opened a Nato summit in Wales.
They said pressure on Russia would be increased if it did not change course. Russia denies claims that it arms rebels and has troops in Ukraine.
Separately, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and rebel leaders said a ceasefire could be agreed on Friday.
Some 2,600 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian troops and rebels.
Ukraine's military says 837 its soldiers have died since the conflict erupted in April.
Correspondents say the Nato summit in Wales is the most important in decades
David Cameron and Barack Obama visited a school in Newport on Thursday ahead of the summit
Ukrainian government forces are manning checkpoints in Mariupol - as rebel shelling was heard in surrounding areas
The conflict has forced more than a million people from their homes in eastern Ukraine, according to the UN.
Ukrainian government forces have recently suffered several losses of territory, after rebels launched offensives in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and further south around the city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea.
Reports are emerging that the separatists have begun shelling the outer defences of Mariupol. At least two military vehicles were seen on fire in the area, and eyewitnesses spoke of gunfire.
Meanwhile, President Poroshenko said "the implementation" of a peace plan - which includes a bilateral ceasefire - could start on Friday, a hope expressed earlier by Russia's President Putin.
The Ukrainian leader said this depended on planned talks in Minsk between representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the pro-Russian rebels and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Rebel leaders were later quoted as saying they would order a ceasefire at 11:00 GMT on Friday if the peace plan was agreed.
On Wednesday, Mr Putin announced a seven-point plan, including a halt to "active offensive operations" by the Ukrainian military and pro-Russia rebels, international ceasefire monitoring, unconditional prisoner exchanges and humanitarian aid corridors.
'Unacceptable' actions
During the two-days of talks in Wales, Nato leaders are also set to discuss the rise of Islamic State (IS), and Afghanistan where Taliban militantslaunched a deadly attack on a government compound on Thursday.
Writing in the Times newspaper, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama said they would "confront" IS, warning their countries would "not be cowed by barbaric killers".
Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: "Putin wants protracted, frozen conflicts in the neighbourhood"
Their statement follows the release of a new IS video showing the killing of US journalist Steven Sotloff, just days after the group beheaded another American reporter, James Foley.
In the latest video, an IS militant is also seen threatening to kill a UK hostage.
On Thursday, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the summit was taking place in a "dramatically changed security environment", with Russia "attacking Ukraine".
"We are still witnessing unfortunately Russian involvement in destabilising the situation in eastern Ukraine," he told journalists in Newport on Thursday ahead of the summit's official launch.
Mr Cameron stressed pressure of sanctions was "the right way to tell the Russians that what they are doing is unacceptable".
The summit is considered Nato's most important for decades, as leaders faced the question of whether the alliance is equipped to deal with 21st Century challenges.
Nato is expected to approve plans to create a rapid response force composed of several thousand troops from member states, able to deploy within 48 hours.
Moscow's actions in Ukraine have raised fears among Nato states bordering Russia, including Lithuania, which has a sizeable Russian-speaking minority.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told the BBC that if Nato did not face up to the challenge "sooner or later we will be facing the aggressor near our border, literally".
President Putin says he hopes talks between Russian, Ukrainian and rebel envoys will end with a peace deal
The challenge from Moscow is two-fold. Russia is, firstly, overturning the post-Cold War security order in Europe set out in the Nato-Russia Founding Act of 1997.
This document, signed in Paris by Nato leaders and then-President Boris Yeltsin, set out to build "a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic Area".
It contained an explicit requirement to respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states. Nato's view is that Russia's behaviour in Ukraine is a blatant breach of the principles contained in the Founding Act.
Secondly, Russian willingness to back separatist forces and to nibble away at the territory of countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union has revived fears among Nato members which border Russia, especially Poland and the Baltic republics.
The principal task of this summit is to try to reassure worried Nato members and to send clear signals to Moscow about Nato's resolve.
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