Kyiv says it destroyed Russian forces that sneaked into Ukraine, Moscow …
(Reuters) – Ukraine said its artillery destroyed part of a Russian armoured column that entered its territory overnight and said its forces came under shellfire from Russia on Friday in what appeared to be a major military escalation between the ex-Soviet states.
Russia’s government denied its forces had crossed into Ukraine, calling the Ukrainian report “some kind of fantasy”, and in turn raised its own serious concerns about activity by the U.S.-led NATO defence alliance near its borders.
Moscow accused Kyiv of trying to sabotage aid deliveries to eastern areas torn by fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Western-backed government of Moscow’s former satellite.
NATO said there had been a Russian incursion into Ukraine, which is not a member of its mutual defence pact, but it avoiding calling it an invasion. Other European capitals accused the Kremlin of escalating a conflict that has revived Cold War-era animosities and chilled the region’s struggling economies
Kyiv and its Western allies have repeatedly accused Russia of arming pro-Moscow separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, and of sending undercover military units onto Ukrainian soil. They have also expressed concern Russia may use an aid convoy it has assembled on the border as a pretext for stoking the conflict.
Source: Reuters