NATO and the Ukrainian government on Friday said that several Russian military vehicles were destroyed overnight when they crossed the border into Ukraine.
A statement on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s website said that Russian APCs were seen entering the country from a point near the aid convoy, but were destroyed by artillery fire from Ukrainian troops, according to the Associated Press. “The president informed that the given information was trustworthy and confirmed because the majority of the machines had been eliminated by Ukrainian artillery at night,” the statement said.
Poroshenko did not provide any proof to corroborate his claim. However, NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance had seen a “Russian incursion” into Ukraine, the AP reports.
Rasmussen also told reporters that the APCs were a sign that Russia was continuing to supply separatists in Ukraine with “a continuous flow of weapons and fighters.”
The vehicles were apparently unrelated to the Russian convoy said to be carrying humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, which is currently stopped at a border point, where CNN reports it is being inspected by officials. The European Union has expressed concern that the convoy could be pretext for an invasion, but the Russian government denied the claim, stating it was only interested in “the tremendously grave humanitarian situation” in the region.
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