Ukrainian forces partly destroyed a Russian military column inside Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday, but Russia insisted that no military vehicles had entered the neighbouring country.
“The majority of the vehicles was destroyed by the Ukrainian artillery at night,” Mr. Poroshenko said during a phone call with British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to his office.
NATO and journalists from several newspapers confirmed Ukraine’s reports of the Russian incursion overnight on Thursday.
The incident would be the first clash between regular troops from both countries and could mark a dangerous escalation in the conflict between separatist militias and government troops in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry said none of its vehicles had entered Ukraine.
“No such Russian military column did exist — not at night and not at day,” Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the Interfax news agency.
Mr. Konashenkov said the Ukrainian claim must be based on “some fantasy”. U.S. Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel called his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu to seek clarification whether Moscow is using a humanitarian convoy as a cover for direct military intervention in Ukraine.
“Minister Shoygu ‘guaranteed’ that there were no Russian military personnel involved,” according to a statement from U.S. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.
Ukrainian officials said that a small military convoy from Russia entered its territory late on Thursday.
Military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkovsky said that the convoy headed from the Izvaryne border crossing to Molodohvardiysk, a city roughly half way between the border and Luhansk, local media reported.
Mr. Dmytrashkovsky’s remarks confirmed reports by Britain’s The Guardian and The Telegraph newspapers, whose reporters saw at least 23 armoured personnel carriers and a number of logistics vehicles entering Ukrainian territory on a dirt track after dusk.
The incident happened not far from the Izvaryne border crossing, which is controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Russian border guards first said they could not confirm the report and later denied it, Russian news agencies reported.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen confirmed the reports. “Last night we saw a Russian incursion,” he told journalists in Copenhagen.
He called the incident “a clear demonstration of the continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine” and called on Moscow to “pull back its troops from the border and to stop the flow of weapons, fighters and money into Ukraine”. In Washington, President Barack Obama’s national security council said it could not confirm the Ukrainian claims about a Russian military convoy.
“We reiterate our concern about repeated Russian and Russian-supported incursions into Ukraine,” White House security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. “Russia has no right to send vehicles, persons, or cargo of any kind into Ukraine, under any pretext, without the government of Ukraine’s permission.” E.U. foreign ministers expressed alarm during emergency talks in Brussels.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that any Russian military personnel or vehicles must be withdrawn immediately “or the consequences could be very serious.” The incident comes as a huge Russian aid convoy destined for the embattled city of Luhansk was stalled at the border with Ukraine.
The government in Kiev said it could start a customs inspection of the almost 280 lorries only after receiving a detailed cargo list from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which would be responsible for delivering the aid.
The ICRC said that Russia should provide the list and that delivery could only begin after Russia and Ukraine agree on inspection and clearance procedures.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said later that such an agreement had been reached and that the Russian aid convoy would go forward.
Mr. Niinisto spoke after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. The Finnish president’s office said that Mr. Niinisto would meet with Mr. Poroshenko on Saturday in Kiev.
The Kremlin said later that Mr. Putin’s and Mr. Poroshenko’s chiefs of staff, Sergei Ivanov and Boris Lozhkin, had met on Friday in Sochi.
The two officials agreed to hold a four-party meeting of the foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France on Sunday in Berlin, Interfax reported.
The Russian aid convoy has been idled since Thursday near the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinky, some 100 kilometres east of Luhansk.
Moscow has rejected accusations that the vehicles could be carrying weapons, and allowed reporters on Friday to look into some of the lorries, which contained sacks with food aid, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency said.
Ukraine, which sees Russia as an aggressor, has insisted that the convoy enter only under the auspices of international organizations.
The Red Cross has warned that security guarantees are needed for the convoy to travel to Luhansk.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine continued unabated. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said that five soldiers were killed and 65 wounded in fighting during the previous 24 hours.
Authorities in the rebel-held city of Donetsk said on Friday that 11 civilians had been killed on Thursday during heavy artillery shelling.
