A conflict that has raged for decades reached a flashpoint this week when rebels backed by Rwanda marched on a key Congolese city in a bid to occupy territory and exploit minerals.

Vladimir Putin grabbed Donbas, an eastern region of Ukraine, and pretended he had not. As a figleaf he used local separatist forces, which Russia armed, supplied and directed. These forces, he claimed,

Rebels seized the airport of east Congo's largest city, Goma, on Tuesday, potentially cutting off the main route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of displaced people, after capturing the city in an offensive that left dead bodies lying in the streets.

The rebels, which Rwanda denies supporting, have long been funded at least in part by the illicit mineral trade.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday spoke separately with the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda about the escalating conflict in eastern Congo, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Rwandan diplomats say their army is not deployed in the DRC, but if it was it would be to protect the Congolese Tutsi community and their own borders against the rebel Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda. The FDLR includes combatants who participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Residents of Goma reported gunfire and shelling after rebels overran Congolese troops. U.N. officials estimated that more than one million displaced people were now inside the city.

In the capital, Kinshasa, protesters complaining of a lack of international action attacked foreign embassies, including those of the U.S., France and Rwanda.

Fighting has escalated sharply in recent weeks in eastern Congo, where rebels have seized key towns and are closing in on the city of Goma, the government’s last stronghold in the North Kivu province,

An armed group backed by Rwandan troops took control of the besieged Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma's airport on Tuesday, a security source said, following three days of

Protesters have attacked embassies in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Kinshasa over Rwanda-backed rebels fighting in Goma. Elian Peltier, an international correspondent for The New York Times, joins CBS News with the latest.