Russian military vehicles spotted crossing to Ukraine.
A column of Russian armored personnel carriers (APCs), in a blatant disregard of Ukraine's sovereignty, has reportedly passed over the border into eastern Ukraine . The APCs had earlier been seen traveling alongside the Russian aid convoy, but the carriers broke off and continued over the Ukrainian border alone.
The Guardian's Moscow correspondent, Shaun Walker, and The Telegraph's Roland Oliphant witnessed the APC convoy cross over the border alongside other military vehicles bearing official Russian military plates.
8:28 PM - 14 Aug 2014 Донецк, Russia
6:49 PM - 14 Aug 2014 Каменский район, Province of Rostov, Russia
The APCs had been traveling alongside a humanitarian aid convoy of unmarked white trucks that Vladimir Putin's government was sending to Ukraine. Military vehicles started traveling alongside the convoy earlier on Thursday.
Most of the fleet of more than 262 vehicles within the humanitarian convoy, including about 200 trucks carrying aid, stopped 15 miles from the border of Ukraine's rebel-held eastern region of Luhansk. The convoy had been planned to go through a Ukrainian-held border crossing by the city of Kharkhiv, but it unexpectedly changed course and instead stopped by the separatist-held Izvaryne border crossing.
Jeremy Bender/Google Maps
After the humanitarian convoy stopped, the fleet of APCs continued over the border into Ukraine.
7:14 PM - 14 Aug 2014 Каменский район, Province of Rostov, Russia
Walker does not believe that the APCs constitute an invasion force. Instead, this movement of Russian forces into Ukraine is likely a continuation of an ongoing Russian policy along the border, where Moscow has constantly pushed the limits of Ukrainian sovereignty in its attempts to aid pro-Russian separatists inside the country.
8:33 PM - 14 Aug 2014 Донецк, Russia
Four months of fighting in the east have produced a humanitarian crisis in parts of eastern Ukraine. People in the main cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, on the border with Russia, are suffering acute shortages of water, food, and electricity.
The past few weeks have seen significant government successes against rebels who have abandoned a string of towns under heavy fire. Kiev says rebel leaders, some of whom are Russians and who seek union with Russia, are receiving arms from Moscow, something the Kremlin denies.
The approach of the convoy presents Kiev with a dilemma.
Ukraine says it fears it could become the focus of tension and conflict once on its soil and provide pretext for a Russian armed incursion. At the same time, Kiev does not want to seem to be blocking aid and providing a moral basis for Kremlin action.
Moscow, which sees Russian-speakers in the east under threat from a government it considers chauvinistic, said any suggestion of a link between the convoy and an invasion plan was absurd.
Russia has continued to increase its military presence along the Ukrainian border despite international pressure. There are an estimated 20,000 Russian troops currently deployed along Ukraine's eastern border who are "capable of a wide spectrum of military operations," according to Pentagon press secretary Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby.
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