Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared Thursday that Russian troops have made their way into the country, the most official acknowledgement of a Russian infiltration into conflict-ridden eastern Ukraine to date.
"Russian forces have entered Ukraine," Poroshenko said before calling an emergency meeting with his security council, the Associated Press reported.
"Today the president's place is in Kiev," the president said as he canceled a trip to Turkey.
The announcement brings to reality what Kiev and the West have feared all along- that Russian forces were attempting to start a new front in the war between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government.
"These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counteroffensive is likely underway in Donetsk and Luhansk," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the AP, referring to the two separatist strongholds.
Poroshenko called his council meeting as the southeastern town of Novoazovsk was seized by rebel fighters, the same place where Ukraine's military said on Monday it stopped Russian tanks and soldiers disguised as separatists that crossed the border.
A NATO official told the AP "we assess there are over 1,000 Russian troops operating inside Ukraine." Another 20,000 troops are believed to be stationed near Russia's border with Ukraine, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Russia has continuously denied aiding and supplying the separatists throughout the nearly five-month conflict. Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the rebel forces, told a Russian TV station that some 4,000 Russians have been fighting for them since the insurgency began in April, according to the AP.
On Wednesday, insurgents stormed the town of Novoazovsk, which up till now has avoided much of the fighting. The town lies on a road connecting Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in March.
The takeover adds to fears that separatists are trying to create a land route between Russia and Crimea, which would give Russia control over the natural resources believed to be in the Azov Sea, the AP reported.
