PRO-RUSSIAN activists organised a humanitarian corridor today for residents of Lugansk to cross the border to escape fighting in Ukraine.

Large sections of the Russian-Ukranian frontier lay wide open after Lugansk insurgents captured three government bases in a series of humiliating defeats for Kiev’s forces on Wednesday.

National Guard forces ran out of ammunition and had to flee their base near the city after hours of battle.

Anti-Kiev forces also seized a border guard headquarters on the city’s outskirts and forced guards out of another base in Sverdlovsk on the Russian border. 

The guards were granted safe passage and left with their weapons.

The setbacks highlighted the ineffectiveness of Kiev’s badly trained and cash-starved army.

Its funding shortage is so desperate that Kiev set up a charity account to buy provisions for the soldiers.

Units in the east are manned by inexperienced conscripts, who come from the region and appear reluctant to engage the rebels.