Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a convoy made up of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer cannons and 30 trucks of troops and equipment crossed the border into the rebel-controlled Lugansk region on Thursday.
Another column including trucks and three mobile radar stations crossed another border point in the same region, he said.NATO said it had not verified the claims of the latest incursion but stated it had observed “a recent increase in Russian troops and equipment along the eastern border of Ukraine”.
“If this crossing into Ukraine is confirmed it would be further evidence of Russia’s aggression and direct involvement in destabilising Ukraine,” a NATO military officer said.
However, the Russian defence ministry said Friday that a string of Western accusations concerning troop movements around the Ukraine border were “untrue”.
Lysenko said five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 16 injured in the past 24 hours in clashes between government forces and pro-Moscow rebels, underscoring the emptiness of a two-month truce that both sides continue to insist they are respecting.
Fifteen civilians were wounded by shrapnel in the separatist bastion of Donetsk, the mayor’s office said, in a night of shelling in two neighbourhoods near the ruins of the airport, where government troops are holding out.
An AFP journalist reported heavy artillery bombardments had resumed in the area around the strategic transport hub late Friday.
– Crumbling peace plan –
While the September truce agreement has seen full-scale confrontations halt along most of the frontline, shelling has continued at flashpoints around the industrial east.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call of an escalation in the conflict following “significant departures” from the agreed peace plan, his office said.
The rebels held leadership elections on Sunday, defying Kiev with a move that sought to formalise their control over the separatist-held territory.
In response, Ukraine’s border guards announced obligatory passport controls around the rebel-held areas on Thursday, effectively setting up a de facto border despite Kiev’s insistence that it has not given up on reclaiming sovereignty.
That move dovetailed with a government decision to sever state subsidies worth some $2.4 billion (1.8 billion euros) each year to the guerrilla regions.
In the wake of Sunday’s rebel polls, Poroshenko also said separatists had “torpedoed” a government proposal to give them autonomy and he ordered troops to reinforce frontline cities.