Ukraine crisis: President Poroshenko says thousands of troops, hundreds of foreign tanks in country's east

Updated

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko says there are now thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of tanks in the country, as the European Union warns a "new Cold War" with Russia would be detrimental to all Europe.

Mr Poroshenko, who is in Brussels to discuss the ongoing crisis with EU leaders, said his country is now the subject of foreign military aggression and terrorism.

"We have a worsening situation since August 27," he told a news conference.

"Thousands of the foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks [are] now on the territory of Ukraine.

"It's a very high risk, not only for the peace and stability for Ukraine, but for the whole peace and stability in Europe."

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he was prepared to toughen sanctions against Russia as the EU searches for a political deal to end the confrontation.

He said any tightening of sanctions would be intended to push Moscow to negotiate, not to escalate the crisis.

"It makes no sense to have ... a new Cold War," he said, adding that it would be "detrimental to all of Europe".

"We are in a very serious, I would say dramatic, situation ... where we can reach the point of no return.

"Point of no return is full-scale war. Which already happened in the territory controlled by separatists and regular Russian troops."

Mr Poroshenko said a meeting of EU leaders had agreed to prepare more sanctions against Russia, but said sanctions would be implemented depending on the success of a proposed peace plan.

Mr Barroso noted that his staff already had a broad range of options to propose to member states.

Russian tanks flattened border town: Ukraine military

Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations from Kiev and Western powers that it has sent soldiers across the border into its neighbour, or supported pro-Russian rebels fighting a five-month-old separatist war in Ukraine's east.

On Friday, NATO released satellite images it said showed well over 1,000 Russian troops in the eastern area of Krasnodon.

Ukraine military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev that Russian tanks had entered the small Ukrainian border town of Novosvitlivka and fired on every house.

"We have information that virtually every house has been destroyed," Mr Lysenko said, without giving details on when the reported attack took place.

"Direct military aggression by the Russian Federation in the east of Ukraine is continuing. The Russians are continuing to send military equipment and 'mercenaries'," Ukraine's defence and security council said in a separate Twitter post.

A senior UN human rights official said on Friday nearly 2,600 civilians, Ukrainian government forces and rebels had been killed in the conflict, which has led to the biggest Russia-West crisis since the Cold War.

The crisis started when Ukraine's Moscow-backed president was ousted by street protests in February after he ditched a pact with the EU that would have moved the ex-Soviet republic firmly towards Europe and away from Russia.

Russia denounced the pro-Western leadership that took over as "a fascist junta" and went on to annex Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

Pro-Russian separatists then rebelled in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking east in April, setting up 'people's republics' and declaring they wanted to join Russia.

Rebels pledge 'mopping up' operation

Pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine have warned they will launch a fresh offensive against government troops, days after seizing swathes of territory.

"We are preparing a second large-scale offensive," Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the rebel's self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said.

"The Ukrainian army left us a lot of equipment, munitions and trophies. In the past day we have captured 40 military vehicles."

Pro-Kiev forces said they had begun withdrawing from a string of positions around the transport hub of Ilovaysk to the south-east of Donetsk after being trapped there by the surprise advance.

Mr Zakharchenko said rebel forces would now push on with a "mopping-up" operation in the area and try to break through government forces cutting off Donetsk from the second-largest insurgent-controlled city of Luhansk.

Ukraine's military said that it lost nine soldiers over the past 24 hours.

In Mariupol, a key port town about 100 kilometres south of Donetsk, preparations were being made to defend the city.

Mr Zakharchenko warned however that rebel forces would enter the city in "the near future".

The government-held coastal city is about 30 kilometres west of the seaside town of Novoazovsk that was captured on Wednesday by fighters flooding across the nearby Russian border.

At the eastern entrance of Mariupol witnesses saw earthmoving equipment digging trenches in front of a crowd of hundreds of local residents singing the national anthem.

ABC/Wires

Topics: world-politics, foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, belgium, ukraine, russian-federation

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