Putin says volunteers are welcome to help fight against Ukrainian forces

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that so-called "volunteer fighters" should be brought into Ukraine.

Putin told Shoigu that Russia should help would-be volunteers to "move to the combat zone" and contrasted them with what he called foreign "mercenaries" fighting for Ukraine.

"Secondly, as regards supplies of weapons, especially Western-made weapons that ended up in the hands of the Russian army, of course, I support the possibility of transferring them to military units of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics," Putin said at the meeting with the Russian Security Council.