West accused of waging 'total hybrid war' against Russia

The Kremlin has once again excoriated the West's actions over Ukraine, accusing it of waging a "total hybrid war" against Russia and unleashing a "Stone-Age outbreak of Russophobia" on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov alleged the West had "declared total hybrid war on us and it's hard to predict how long this will all last," warning that, without exception, "the consequences will be felt by everyone."

Lavrov's comments came during a meeting of the pro-Kremlin Council for Foreign and Security Policy in Moscow on Saturday, according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia had done everything it could to avoid a direct confrontation with the West, Lavrov claimed, adding that Moscow now accepted the challenge, given it had long been used to sanctions.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry announced its troops had shelled several Ukrainian command posts and two ammunition depots in the Donetsk region overnight on Friday.

In the course of the strikes, some 23 military units had been put out of action and up to 100 Ukrainian fighters had been "destroyed," ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said. None of the claims could be independently verified.

The Ukrainians reported that Russian forces had renewed their shelling of Mariupol's industrial zone overnight, despite Ukrainian efforts to negotiate a solution for the remaining Ukrainians in the city's now largely destroyed Azovstal steel plant.