Ukraine says Russian forces cross border in tanks, armored vehicles

By Annie Gowen and Karoun Demirjian August 25 at 12:35 PM
KIEV — Ukraine charged that Russian forces crossed into eastern Ukraine early Monday with tanks and other military vehicles, as Russia vowed to send in a second humanitarian aid convoy to deliver emergency supplies to areas held by pro-Moscow separatists later this week.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Russian military vehicles with the insignia of the separatists’ self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic “violated the state border of Ukraine” near Novoazovsk in the southern part of Donetsk region.

It was the latest accusation from Kiev that Russia has been directly supplying weapons, personnel and other assistance to the separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine.

International monitors who have been critical of Russia’s actions did not race to back up Ukraine’s accusations Monday.

In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had not heard of the incident, but he dismissed the Ukrainian claim that Russian tanks had opened a new front in Ukraine, along with earlier accusations that he rejected as “misinformation.”

While Ukraine marked its Independence Day with a military parade in Kiev, separatists countered by parading captured Ukrainian troops through the streets of their main stronghold, Donetsk. (Reuters)

Lysenko said at least 10 tanks, two armored vehicles and two trucks from Russia crossed into Ukrainian territory at 5:20 a.m. Monday, potentially bound for the key port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.

The highway leading to Mariupol is currently under control of the Ukrainian military, he said.

The Russian military vehicles flying rebel flags moved toward the village of Shcherbak, where they engaged in battle with soldiers of a Ukrainian border unit, Lysenko said in a briefing Monday. He said the Ukrainian forces then called for reinforcements and managed to stop the advance of the convoy just outside the villages of Shcherbak and Markyne. The villages are north of the larger town of Novoazovsk, about five miles from the Russian border.

Leonid Matyukhin, a Ukrainian security spokesman, said that after the encounter outside the villages, Ukrainian troops fell back to regroup and the Russian tanks remain in the area.

On Saturday, Russian forces fired artillery across the border and later used rocket launchers to destroy the Ukrainian checkpoint there, Lysenko said.

A villager who lives near the Russian border where the alleged incursion occurred said his entire community was awakened by the thunderous sound of engines from the border around 5 a.m. Several residents went to the edge the village as four tanks and one armored personnel carrier approached, he said in a telephone interview.

The soldiers, who were wearing camouflage, got out to greet them and identified themselves in Russian as separatists, said the man, who gave his name only as Mykolai out of fear for his safety.

The soldiers were polite, asking for water and to borrow local cellphones to make telephone calls, Mykolai recalled.


Ukrainian forces on the move near the eastern city of Debaltseve on Monday. A Ukrainian spokesman said Russian forces in military vehicles crossed into Ukraine and engaged in a battle with border troops. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/AFP/Getty Images)

“For me, being a local, it’s clear they came from Russian territory,” he said. “We were surprised to see them. They said, ‘Don’t be afraid. We won’t harm you.’ ”

A short while later, the soldiers went on their way, he said, and the villagers then heard a pitched battle a short distance away. The soldiers and tanks had engaged in a firefight with Ukrainian forces, resulting in damaged equipment but no reported casualties.

As of late Monday, the tanks had not departed the area, Mykolai said. The villagers could still hear them, idling in the nearby fields.

Semyon Semenchenko, the commander of a pro-government volunteer battalion in the Donetsk region, called the situation a “small local invasion” in an interview with a Ukrainian television station. He advised residents not to panic.

Semenchenko suggested that the Russians may be trying to “put the pressure on our president” the day before Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a summit in Minsk, Belarus, with leaders of the European Customs Union, the European Union and Ukraine. Other participants include Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russia’s partners in the newly formed Eurasian Economic Union.

Lavrov said he hoped the meeting could help resolve the Ukrainian conflict and that Russia was open to “any format” toward that end as long as it moved away from open military conflict.

Putin and Poroshenko could hold a private bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the regional summit, according to Russian officials.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of manipulating and even driving the separatist uprising in the east. To make their cases, officials have pointed to a buildup of troops along the border, alleged cross-border incursions and shelling and the precedent of Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea in March.

In April, Putinacknowledged that Russian troops had played a role in taking over Crimea. The admission came after repeated denials since Crimea joined Russia in a transfer of sovereignty that Ukraine and its allies still do not recognize.

The latest Ukrainian charges come just days after Russia sent a convoy of trucks, ostensibly bearing supplies for civilians in the war-torn region of Luhansk, into eastern Ukraine without the Kiev government’s permission.

Lavrov told reporters Monday that Russia informed Ukraine Sunday night in an official diplomatic note that it intended to send another humanitarian aid convoy to Ukraine, using the same route employed by trucks that entered Luhansk without the Ukrainian government’s permission last week.

“We are convinced that it needs to be done this week,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, adding that he hoped the second convoy would go “more smoothly.”

Russia sparked an international backlash last week when it decided to send more than 200 trucks carrying what it said was humanitarian aid across the border to areas held by pro-Russian separatists. Russian officials said they ran out of patience with Ukrainian “excuses” and “delays” surrounding the delivery. U.S. and NATO officials questioned whether the shipments were really meant to resupply beleaguered rebels, who have been losing ground to Ukrainian forces lately.

The trucks had idled for more than a week on Russian territory as Ukrainian officials and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which was tasked with supervising such shipments, determined whether they were ready to let the trucks in.

Eventually, Russia elected to send the convoy through a border crossing controlled by pro-Russian separatists without a go-ahead from Ukraine, and without waiting for the ICRC to confirm that it had enough security guarantees to begin its work.

But on Monday, Lavrov indicated that Russia was willing to return to the original terms of its agreement with Ukraine to deliver the next shipment under the ICRC’s authority.

“We are hoping that the misunderstanding that took place during the clearance of the first convoy will be taken into account and there will be no such artificial delays anymore,” Lavrov said. He added that he hoped that Russia and Ukrainian border and customs officers could come to an agreement on the terms of the delivery.

Ukrainian and ICRC officials did not immediately respond to Lavrov’s announcement.

The Russian foreign minister said the ICRC was already preparing to distribute the goods from the first Russian aid shipment in Luhansk starting Monday. Although the ICRC cited security concerns as the reason its representatives could not accompany the convoy on Friday, the organization has a team on the ground in Luhansk assessing the situation.

Lavrov demurred when asked whether Russia would proceed with the second convoy as it had before -- without Ukraine’s permission or an ICRC escort -- if they did not agree to work on Russia’s timeline.

The white-painted trucks from the Russian aid convoy arrived Friday in the rebel-held city, where workers unloaded food, water and other emergency supplies. The trucks then left on their return trip by the route — but not without raising a host of questions in their wake.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested that the trucks had also smuggled in military supplies to replenish the pro-Russian fighters. A Ukrainian military spokesman also charged that Russia intended to use the empty trucks to secretly bring back sophisticated defense technology produced in Ukraine but long used by the Russian military.

Many Western leaders accused Russia of violating international law by entering Ukraine without government permission.

Russia has denied those accusations, arguing that it acted in accordance with international humanitarian law in trying to help civilians who were left without water and electricity in a conflict zone.

On Monday, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine’s other war-torn region, Donetsk, told Russia’s Interfax news agency that they hoped the second aid convoy would also bring a shipment in their direction.

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