Ukraine accuses Russia of full-scale invasion

(Vatican Radio) Ukraine's government says a "full-scale" Russian invasion has begun in the east of the country, prompting President Petro Poroshenko to cancel a trip to Turkey, though Moscow denied involvement in the latest fighting.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: 

Amid the tensions, a desperate woman cried while an injured person was rushed to hospital in the Donetsk region. Fighting escalated here with Ukrainian and Western officials saying Russian troops entered Ukraine on a massive scale.

United States officials said intelligence indicates that up to 1,000 Russian troops already moved into the region Thursday, with heavy weapons, and were fighting there.       

Ukrainian officials claimed at least two more columns of tanks from Russia entered Ukraine after rockets were fired from Russian territory and outgunned border guards were forced to retreat.    

With fresh supplies and reinforcement on the way, pro-Russian rebels backed by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers fought Ukrainian forces on two fronts Thursday: southeast of rebel-held Donetsk, and along the nation's southern coast in the town of Novoazovsk.

PRESIDENT STAYING HOME 

Speaking at an airport, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko explained that he cancelled a planned visit to Turkey at the last moment to deal with the crisis. 

He told his nation that Russian troops have been “brought into Ukraine” and that due to the deteriorating situation in southern Donetsk region he would not attend the inauguration of Turkey's new president. He called for an urgent meeting of Ukraine's national and defence council. “The place of the Ukrainian president is in Kiev,” he said.    

Poroshenko also asked for emergency meetings of the United Nations Security Council and the European Union saying "the world must react to the escalating crisis in Ukraine".   

Moscow denied involvement in the conflict. But even the pro-Russian separatist leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, said thousands of Russians have been fighting with the rebels. 

"We never hid the fact that there are many Russian citizens among us, without whose help it would be very difficult to fight now,” he said. "There were about 3,000- 4,000 of them in our ranks. Many have left but more 

are still here. There are also many serving soldiers who preferred to spend their vacation with us, brothers who are fighting for their freedom instead of lying on the beach.”

NATO CONCERNS

And, the NATO military alliance says Russia is massing 20,000 combat troops near Ukraine's border.  

The latest escalation in the crisis comes raised doubts about the outcome of talks between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents in Belarus this week.

Critics say Russia wants to make sure that eastern Ukraine remains a frozen conflict as it tries to maintain its influence in Ukraine, where the government is seeking closer ties with the West.  

The biggest east-west confrontation since the Cold War is also impacting other countries: Finland said Thursday that a Russian fighter jet had violated its airspace for the third time in a week. It came a day after the Nordic country together with Sweden said it would sign an agreement with NATO to allow the military alliance to deploy forces inside the two countries.

Finland has the longest border with Russia of any country and is the latest in a series of nations around the Baltic sea to report suspected violations of its sea- or airspace.