Russian column destroyed by artillery fire, says Ukraine

NATO and Ukraine said that a column of military vehicles crossed into Ukraine from Russia last night and that most of them had been destroyed by Ukrainian artillery fire. It was not clear whether Russian soldiers or rebel separatists were driving the vehicles.

President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine said in a statement on his website that he could confirm some Western news reports that the column had crossed into Ukraine last night. "The president informed that the given information was trustworthy and confirmed because the majority of the machines had been eliminated by Ukrainian artillery at night," the statement said.

In Copenhagen, the secretary-general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the alliance had detected an “incursion” of vehicles from Russia last night, adding: “What we have seen last night is the continuation of what we have seen for some time.”

Financial markets in Europe and the United States swooned on news of the incursion, while oil prices jumped.

Meanwhile, the convoy of more than 260 trucks that Russia says are filled with food and other aid for civilians caught up in the fighting in eastern Ukraine remained stalled inside Russia today amid confusion over when inspections would start. Ukraine and its Western allies want to ensure that the cargo contains only relief supplies and not items that could help pro-Russian fighters battling to survive a Ukrainian offensive.

A statement early this morning by the Ukrainian military said border guards had started examining the trucks, but the military’s spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, later denied this and said inspections could not begin until the Ukrainian authorities received documents detailing the trucks’ contents.

Mr Lysenko said Ukraine had sent border guards and customs officials to a Russian border town to examine the trucks but was still waiting for the necessary documentation from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Red Cross, for its part, said Russia had yet to provide a detailed inventory and called for a speedy resolution of the problem.

In the interim, Red Cross staff members, representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and more than 50 Ukrainian border guards already on site had nothing to do. In a statement issued in Geneva, the Red Cross said swift action was need to allow “confirmation of the strictly humanitarian nature of the cargo.”

“As and when agreement is reached, we plan to deliver this humanitarian aid to people affected by conflict in eastern Ukraine, health facilities and other welfare organizations,” Laurent Corbaz, the Red Cross’ head of operations for Europe and Central Asia, said during a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. “People are struggling to cope with limited access to basic services such as water and electricity, so speed is of the essence.”

At the camp where the trucks were parked overnight, Russian officials and a contingent of young men dressed identically in beige hats, T-shirts and shorts allowed journalists to inspect trucks of their choice for a second straight day. None could say definitively when they would leave.

“A day, two days, two weeks, a month,” said Boris Pashenko, a border service representative. The trucks were in a border zone close to several military bases, where columns of armoured military vehicles driving in the direction of the Ukrainian border are a common sight. Two Western journalists reported seeing 23 armoured vehicles crossing a border post into Ukraine yesterday evening.

Ukraine and the United States have accused Russia of covertly arming pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russian news agencies quoted an unidentified spokesman for the border guard service as saying that the service, run by the FSB - the successor agency to the KGB - had deployed more mobile teams near the border. The spokesman said this was a response to increased infiltration by Ukrainian servicemen into Russia and more frequent shelling across the border. He denied that any vehicles had crossed the border, calling such reports “completely untrue.”

Sergei Karavaytsev of Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations denied that the trucks in the convoy were from the military and said they were hired through private businesses. Masked guards who said they were military police officers also appeared at the camp site late yesterday evening. Members of the Red Cross were also at the convoy’s field camp today, Mr Karavaytsev said.

In Kiev, Mr Lysenko said an agreement had been reached to allow the inspection of the convoy, and the searches would start once the dispute over paperwork was resolved. “Help is needed, and we accepted it,” he said, adding that Ukrainian inspectors had already travelled to Donetsk, a small Russian town that has the same name as a separatist stronghold in eastern Ukraine, to begin their work. “But we can’t start the procedure because we don’t have documents.”

While backing away from the angry denunciations that characterized Ukraine’s initial response to Moscow’s relief effort, Mr Lysenko repeated earlier Ukrainian accusations that Russia was sending military assistance across the border to pro-Russian rebels. He said unspecified military equipment had been moved into Ukraine from Russia through a border area controlled by the pro-Russian separatists.

Stung by accusations that it is stalling the delivery of Russian relief supplies to the eastern city of Luhansk and is not doing enough to improve the plight of residents caught up in the fighting, Ukraine is sending its own aid convoys to the besieged city. Mr Lysenko said 71 Ukrainian trucks had been sent to the conflict zone with food, water, tea, soap and other supplies. He said 390 tons of Ukrainian aid had already arrived in Luhansk.

He denied rebel claims that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the shelling on Thursday of downtown Donetsk. He blamed rebels for the shelling, accusing them of firing into the city from positions near the Donetsk train station. He did not explain why the rebels would fire into a city they control.

Russia announced that Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, had spoken by telephone with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, about speeding the passage of the convoy. Aside from the urgent need to get the supplies across the border, the two men also agreed to work toward establishing a cease-fire while the aid is delivered, the Foreign Ministry statement said.

New York Times