- Kyiv declares state of emergency, calls up reservists
- EU adds Russian lawmakers to blacklist
- Britain to stop selling sovereign debt
- EU leaders to hold emergency summit
- Official web sites in Ukraine hacked and brought down
- Russian invasion coming?
- Latvian Prime Minister: "Russia transfers forces and tanks to eastern Ukraine"

KYIV/DONETSK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine declared a state of emergency on Wednesday and told its citizens in Russia to flee, while Moscow began evacuating its Kyiv embassy in the latest ominous signs for Ukrainians who fear an all-out Russian military onslaught.

Shelling intensified at the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of two Moscow-backed rebel regions this week and has ordered the deployment of Russian troops as "peacekeepers".

But there was still no clear indication of whether he plans to follow that up with a massed assault on his neighbour by tens of thousands of troops gathered near Ukraine's borders.

The uncertainty has roiled financial markets but oil prices eased on Wednesday, global stocks broke a four-day slide and demand for safe-haven assets waned as Western leaders and Ukraine awaited Putin's next move. read more

"Predicting what might be the next step of Russia, the separatists or the personal decisions of the Russian president -- I cannot say," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

In addition to the 30-day state of emergency, the Ukrainian's government has announced compulsory military service for all men of fighting age. Ukraine's parliament, cabinet and foreign ministry websites were down. Government websites have experienced several outages in recent weeks, which Kyiv has blamed on cyber attacks.

Moscow denies planning an invasion and has described warnings as anti-Russian hysteria. But it has also taken no steps to withdraw the troops deployed along Ukraine's frontiers.

On Wednesday, it took down flags from its embassy in Kyiv, having ordered its diplomats to evacuate for safety reasons.

The United States and its allies unveiled incremental sanctions against Russia, while making clear they were keeping tougher measures in reserve in case of a full-scale invasion.

European Union sanctions approved on Wednesday will add all members of Russia's lower house of parliament who voted to recognise the separatist regions in Ukraine to a blacklist, freezing their assets and banning travel. read more

EU leaders will also hold an emergency summit on Thursday to discuss what to do next.

Britain announced new restrictions banning Russia from the issuing of new bonds in its security markets, and called for its broadcasting regulator to investigate Russia's RT international television news channel as a propaganda outlet.

"There will be even more tough sanctions on key oligarchs, on key organisations in Russia, limiting Russia's access to the financial markets, if there is a full scale invasion of Ukraine," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

The steps follow measures announced on Tuesday, including freezing the approval of a new Russian gas pipeline by Germany, and imposing new U.S. sanctions on Russian banks.

INVASION

Washington has described Russia's actions as the start of an "invasion", but it and its allies have stopped short of the major financial sanctions they have threatened if there is a full-blown attack.

Ukraine's military said one soldier had been killed and six wounded in increased shelling by pro-Russian separatists using heavy artillery, mortar bombs and Grad rocket systems in the two breakaway areas over the previous 24 hours.

New satellite imagery showed several fresh troop and equipment deployments in western Russia and more than 100 vehicles at a small airfield in southern Belarus, which borders Ukraine, according to U.S. firm Maxar.

For months, Russia has presented the crisis mainly as a dispute with the West, demanding security guarantees, including a promise never to allow Ukraine to join NATO.

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[VIDEO] Lebanese Security Group SF Foils ISIS cell made up of Palestinians Planning to Bomb Shiite Worship Places

The Lebanese news "Naharnet" reports today that the Internal Security Forces have thwarted a plan by the Islamic State group to carry out three suicide bombings targeting Shiite religious compounds in Beirut's southern suburbs, the interior ministry said Wednesday.

"A terrorist group had recruited young Palestinian men in Lebanon to carry out major bombing attacks using explosive belts" and other munitions, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told a press conference.

"Three separate targets were to be hit at the same time," the ministry said, in an operation Mawlawi said would have caused a large loss of life.

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) said the instructions for the bomb plot came from an IS operative based in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, who is in touch with fellow Sunni extremists in Syria.

The instructions were passed to an undercover ISF agent who had successfully managed to infiltrate ISIS networks in Lebanon.

On February 7, the ISF agent was instructed to prepare attacks on a Shiite religious compound in the al-Laylaki neighborhood, the Imam al-Kazem compound in Haret Hreik and the al-Nasser mosque in Beirut's Ouzai suburb, the ISF said. 

He was given three explosive vests and other weapons to conduct the attacks on February 16, the ISF added.

Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hizbullah, saw a wave of bombings in 2013 and 2014 carried out by Al-Qaeda linked militants in retaliation for Hezbollah's intervention in the civil war in neighboring Syria on the side of the Damascus government 

According to the ISF, the planned attack by ISIS was meant to "pay homage" to the group's slain leader Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, killed in a U.S. raid on his home in rebel-held northwestern Syria last month.