Warsaw: Poland plans to build a new canal to bypass a stretch of coastline controlled by Russia, as the country tries to become less dependent on its neighbour amid the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The canal, which will cost an estimated £167 million ($300 million), will link the Vistula Lagoon in the north-east of Poland with the Baltic Sea. All sea traffic from the lagoon and the flourishing port of Elblag has to travel through Russian waters to get to the Baltic. The canal will cut through a strip of land no wider than about 2 kilometres that separates the lagoon from the sea.

The approval of its construction marks an about-turn for Poland's centre-right government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. A year ago he rejected plans for the canal, but the war in eastern Ukraine and Russia's apparent willingness to meddle in the affairs of its neighbours appear to have changed the government's mind.

In Ukraine, artillery shells slammed into the outskirts of Donetsk on Sunday as government forces tightened the noose around the rebel-held redoubt and called on pro-Russian separatists to surrender.