Russia is denying reports of their military vehicles that crossed into Ukraine during the night were quickly destroyed Ukrainian troops, according to The Associated Press.
In Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry denied the reports that Ukraine had destroyed Russian military vehicles, the AP reported.
Breaking an earlier deal, Russia this week sent the convoy of roughly 200 aid trucks toward a border crossing under the control of pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, raising the prospect that it could enter without being inspected by Ukraine or the Red Cross, according to the AP. Kiev had agreed to admit the trucks, but only through a region untouched by separatist unrest.
Russian newswires quoted Gen. Maj. Igor Konashenkov as saying that no Russian military convoy had crossed the border as Ukraine claimed, though Russia said Russian forces were patrolling the border region, according to the AP.
NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, however, confirmed that the alliance had observed a Russian "incursion" into Ukraine, the AP reported.
A statement on President Petro Poroshenko's website said he and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke Friday by telephone about the reports from Western journalists that Russian APCs were seen crossing into Ukraine near the point where over 200 vehicles in the Russian aid convoy were parked, according to the AP.
"The president said that the given information was trustworthy and confirmed because the majority of the vehicles were destroyed by Ukrainian artillery at night," Poroshenko said in a statement, but gave no proof for his comments, the AP reported.
After days of controversy, Russia nominally consented to let Ukrainian officials inspect the convoy while it was still on Russian soil and agreed that the Red Cross would distribute the goods in Ukraine's region of Luhansk, according to the AP.
Some Russian military vehicles were seen near the aid convoy Friday carrying a Russian acronym standing for "peacekeeping forces," a signal that Moscow was considering a possible military escort, the AP reported.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine has claimed nearly 2,100 lives, half of those in the last few weeks, according to the AP. It began in April, a month after Russia annexed Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
