A Russian military haulage truck transporting a self-propelled howitzer 2S19 - MSTA-S are seen along a road near the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region, Russia, some 30 km from the Russian-Ukrainian border
AFP
Ukraine said on Friday it had destroyed part of a Russian military convoy that crossed onto its territory in an incursion that has sent cross-border tensions rocketing.
NATO accused Russia of active involvement in the "destabilisation" of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Kremlin separatists have been fighting against Kiev for four months.
The two countries have also been wrangling for days over a Russian convoy that Moscow says is carrying aid for besieged rebel-held cities but which Kiev suspects could be a "Trojan horse" to provide military help to the insurgents.
Fears that the border clash could spill into all-out war between Kiev and Moscow sent major share markets tumbling across Europe and the United States.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told British Prime Minister David Cameron that government artillery had destroyed a "considerable part" of a small military convoy that entered the country, the presidency said in a statement.
The European Union demanded that Russia "put an immediate stop to any form of border hostilities, in particular to the flow of arms, military advisers and armed personnel into the conflict region, and to withdraw its forces from the border."
French President Francois Hollande called on Russia to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and for both sides to try to de-escalate the "very high tensions," while Britain summoned Moscow's ambassador to "clarify" the situation and a spokesman for Cameron said Russia needs to show "a willingness to find a peaceful solution to the conflict".
Moscow has rejected the charges it sent in the military hardware, its latest denial of Western accusations that it is funnelling weapons to the pro-Russia separatists who launched an insurgency against Kiev in April.
But NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen backed reports of the "Russian incursion" after British media said it had seen the convoy of some 20 vehicles cross the border.
"It just confirms the fact that we see a continued flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into the eastern Ukraine," he said.
"It is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilisation of eastern Ukraine."
Russia denies
The Russian defence ministry denied Friday that it had sent a military convoy into Ukraine after officials in Kiev said they destroyed part of the armoured column.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov said "there exists no Russian military convoy that supposedly crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border...", but better that Ukraine's armed forces "destroy fantoms instead of refugees or their own soldiers," he added, according to Russian news agencies.
Ukraine FM to meet Russia's Lavrov
Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said Friday that he will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for talks in Berlin on Sunday alongside the top diplomats from France and Germany.
"I am going to be in Berlin Sunday for a meeting with (Frank-Walter) Steinmeier, (Laurent) Fabius and Lavrov. Be it a square table or a round one, we need to talk," Klimkin wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine FM to meet Russia's Lavrov in Berlin Sunday
Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said Friday that he will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for talks in Berlin on Sunday alongside the top diplomats from France and Germany.
"I am going to be in Berlin Sunday for a meeting with (Frank-Walter) Steinmeier, (Laurent) Fabius and Lavrov. Be it a square table or a round one, we need to talk," Klimkin wrote on Twitter.
