Ukraine’s restive east verging on return to war, says Kiev

Nato has said it saw columns of Russian troops and military equipment entering Ukraine this week, supporting allegations by Kiev that the nation's eastern combat zone is close to returning to open war.

"We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air-defence systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine," said US Air Force Gen Philip Breedlove, Nato's top military commander.

However, an incursion was denied by Russia's defence ministry. The Russian army is not present in eastern Ukraine, Interfax news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. The official, Maj-Gen Igor Konashenkov, said "there was and is no evidence" behind such statements.

The separatists and their Russian backers are amassing troops in the areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions they've seized, Ukraine defence minister Stepan Poltorak told a government meeting earlier in Kiev. One Ukrainian serviceman died and five were wounded in the past 24 hours, claimed military spokesman.

There was no independent confirmation of the accounts.

Pressure has been building for days in eastern Ukraine, with the government and the militants accusing each other of gearing up for a renewed military push that risks swelling the conflict’s death toll of more than 4,000.

Friction over the region's fate is driving a wedge between Russia and its former cold war adversaries . Russian president Vladimir Putin denies stoking the unrest. Bloomberg/Reuters