Merkel aide raps Russia after report on aid to Ukraine rebels

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert listens during a news conference of Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, July 18, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman accused Moscow on Friday of actively stoking the conflict in eastern Ukraine after a senior separatist in the region was quoted as saying the rebels were receiving "a lot" of Russian money.

Igor Martinov, the rebel-appointed administrative chief of Donetsk, the region's largest city, told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily that Moscow was helping to finance public services and state pay and pensions no longer funded by the Ukrainian government in Kiev.