Ukraine accuses Russia of sending tanks across its border

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending tanks across its border
(Image credit: YouTube/Erich Hartmann)

On Thursday, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that an armored column from Russia, including three tanks plus armored cars and personnel carriers, had crossed into eastern Ukraine through a separatist-controlled border crossing. Two of the tanks split off and headed west toward Horlivka (Gorlovka), Avakov said, adding that Ukraine forces attacked that column and destroyed part of it, CNN reports.

Russia disputes the claim that its tanks are in Ukraine, and there is no independent verification, though Reuters reporters saw tanks in Snizhne — roughly halfway between the porous Russian border and separatist-held Donetsk — and someone in that town uploaded this video:

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Russian President Vladimir Putin to complain about the incursion, his spokesman said. Pro-Moscow separatists are known to have armored vehicles seized from Ukraine's forces, The New York Times notes, but not tanks.

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.