Doug Stanglin and Michael Winter

USA TODAY

As Kiev accused Moscow of sending troops across the border to fight with separatists, the Ukrainian president dissolved Parliament on Monday and called for early elections.

President Petro Poroshenko set the voting for Oct. 26, noting that the coalition that had ruled Ukraine collapsed last month.

"The composition of Parliament doesn't represent the political leanings of Ukrainian society," Poroshenko said in a statement posted on his website. "Society has changed so fast that lawmakers haven't been able to keep up with its historic pace."

"Many deputies ... are direct sponsors or accomplices, that is to say allies of the militant separatists," he added.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk will remain in a caretaker role until his successor is installed. He became prime minister in February after deadly protests led to the ouster of Poroshenko's elected predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych.

Poroshenko said lawmakers would working until voters choose the next Parliament. He identified ratification of Ukraine's trade agreement with the European Union as their most important piece of business.

The president's move came hours after Ukrainian officials said a column of Russian military vehicles — disguised with flags to look like separatist rebels — crossed the border and opened up a new battle front in southeast Ukraine. It also came a day before he and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of a regional economic summit in Minsk to discuss the instability in Ukraine.

Until now, most of the fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels has taken place in the Donbass, the industrialized eastern region of Ukraine that includes rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Ukrainian officials said the column appeared to be headed for Mariupol, a key government city on the Sea of Azov, but had been halted by Ukrainian troops near the town of Novoazovsk.

"This morning there was an attempt by the Russian military in the guise of Donbass fighters to open a new area of military confrontation in the southern Donetsk region," Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Council, told reporters in Kiev.

Lysenko said the column of 10 tanks, two armored vehicles and two trucks crossed the border near the Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk, which was shelled during the night. He said they were Russian military vehicles bearing the flags of the Donetsk separatists.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had not heard the reports of new military action in Ukraine but complained of regular "disinformation about our 'incursions.'"

Ihor Mosiychuk, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov battalion, said on Facebook on Monday that the convoy was made up of 30 tanks with symbols of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, according to Interfax Ukraine.

On his website, according to Ukrinform, the Ukrainian news agency, Mosiychuk called the action a "full-scale invasion!" Ukrainian officials stopped short of characterizing the action as an outright invasion.

The Associated Press reported that several military convoys coming from the direction of Russia had passed through the rebel-held city of Krasnodon in eastern Ukraine this month, including three times last week.

It reported one convoy was loaded with about 30 units of weaponry and supplies and headed west toward pro-Russia separatists who have been battling the Ukrainian military.

More than 2,000 people have died in clashes between Ukrainian troops and separatists since April. Russia has insisted that the rights of the largely ethnic Russians in the eastern regions of Ukraine be protected.

In Moscow, meanwhile, Lavrov also said that Russia hopes to send a second humanitarian convoy to southeastern Ukraine this week. Last week's convoy of around 280 trucks became a diplomatic tug-of-war between Russia and Ukraine, with the vehicles sitting at the border for more than a week.

Ukraine said Russia would not comply with an agreement to open all vehicles to inspection and turn over the humanitarian effort to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC said it did not join the convoy because of security concerns. Russia accused Ukraine of creating unnecessary delays.

Ukraine has accused Russia of using the convoys as a cover for aiding Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine or as a pretext for a full-scale invasion.

The first convoy of trucks eventually crossed into Ukraine unauthorized, prompting condemnation from Ukraine, NATO and the U.S. The trucks took their cargo to the besieged city of Luhansk and crossed back into Russia within 24 hours.

Contributing: Associated Press



