Ukrainian troops are battling a Russian military column disguised as separatist fighters that had crossed into Ukraine and was heading towards the city of Mariupol, a Ukrainian military spokesman said Monday. Russia has denied the claims.

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A Ukrainian military spokesman said government troops were battling a Russian military contingent of "10 tanks and two armoured personal carriers" that was bearing the flags used by separatist rebels in Donetsk.

An earlier military statement said border guards had halted the armoured column outside Novoazovsk, Ukraine's most southeasterly point on the Azov Sea.

"This morning there was an attempt by the Russian military, in the guise of Donbas fighters, to open a new area of military confrontation in the southern Donetsk region," spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.

Donbas is the local name given to Ukraine's industrialised east and the focal point of the pro-Moscow separatist insurgency.

But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the reports of a Russian incursion, saying: "I haven't heard about it, but there has been more than enough disinformation about our invasion. No doubt some foreign newspaper will print that 'news' tomorrow."

The reported clashes could indicate an attempt by Russia to move on Mariupol, a major port on the Azov Sea, an arm of the Black Sea. The capture of Mariupol, which lies on the main road between Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, could be a first step in seizing territory that links Russia with Crimea, which Russia annexed in March.

Fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists has until now been concentrated around the two main rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Some 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the north, AFP journalists witnessed heavy fighting raging to the south of Donetsk, the main rebel bastion, a day after separatist leaders said they had deployed tanks and artillery to the area.

Explosions rang out and smoke rose from towns to the south of the city. Ukraine's military said four soldiers had been killed and 31 wounded in the past 24 hours.

Russia 'plans new aid convoy'

The latest fighting comes as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian leader Vladimir Putin prepare to meet for the first time in months alongside top EU officials on Tuesday in Minsk.

Poroshenko has pledged to "talk peace" with Putin when they meet but insists the withdrawal of pro-Kremlin rebel forces is the only way to end the conflict in east Ukraine.

Poroshenko signed a decree Monday to dissolve parliament, he announced in a Twitter post, paving the way for new elections to be held on Ocotber 26.

The Kremlin said on Monday that it planned to send another controversial aid convoy into east Ukraine sometime "this week".

Russia sent 230 lorries carrying what it claimed was 1,800 tonnes humanitarian aid to the rebel-held city of Lugansk on Friday. Kiev condemned the move as a "direct invasion" and the trucks returned to Russia on Saturday without incident.

More than 2,200 people have died and 400,000 have fled their homes after more than four months of fighting that has left residents in some rebel-held cities without water or power for weeks.

Kiev has accused Russia of ramping up arms supplies to the rebels as government troops have pushed deeper into rebel-held territory. Moscow, in turn, has blamed Ukraine's military offensive for the dire humanitarian situation in many portions of the east.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)

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