Ukraine's President Dissolves Parliament, Calls For New Elections

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced today on the presidential website that he was dissolving parliament and called for fresh elections on Oct. 26.

Poroshenko said the move was in accordance with the country's constitution, noting that Ukraine's coalition government collapsed July 24.

He said many lawmakers in Parliament were allied with ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, and that some were "direct sponsors or accomplices" of pro-Russia separatist militants in the country's east.

Poroshenko's move comes ahead of a planned summit Tuesday in Belarus that includes him and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Kiev has accused Russia of helping separatists fighting against government troops in eastern Ukraine. Relations between the two countries have suffered since Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in March.

The Ukrainian military today said Russian troops wearing the insignia of separatist fighters from eastern Ukraine crossed into their territory with tanks and armored personnel carriers. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who is in the nearby city of Donetsk, told our Newscast unit that Ukrainian officials accused the Kremlin of trying to open a new front in Ukraine's civil war.

Here's more from Soraya: