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A top NATO official produced satellite photos Thursday to back up his claim that at least 1,000 Russian troops have crossed into Ukraine.

Dutch Brigadier General Nico Tak said the 1,000 Russian soldiers was a conservative estimate and said another 20,000 Russian troops were right over the border.

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The satellite images provide what NATO called additional evidence that Russian combat soldiers, equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, are operating inside Ukraine’s sovereign territory.

“This is highly sophisticated weaponry that requires well-trained crews, well-trained command and control elements, and it is extremely unlikely that this sort of equipment is used by volunteers,” Tak said.

Moscow has described the Russian citizens fighting with the separatists as volunteers.

As reports of the images emerged, Russian state media cast doubt their existence. “No actual evidence has been given either by either foreign governments or the media, apart from claims that photographs exist that someone had ‘seen,'” Russia Today wrote Thursday.