Ukraine artillery destroys part of Russian armoured column, says Poroshenko

Ukraine said its artillery destroyed part of a Russian armoured column that entered its territory overnight and said its forces came under shellfire from Russia on Friday in what appeared to be a major military escalation between the ex-Soviet states. Russia's government denied its forces had crossed into Ukraine.

It called the Ukrainian report "some kind of fantasy" and accused Kiev of trying to sabotage aid deliveries to eastern areas torn by fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Western-backed government of Moscow's former satellite.

Nato said there had been a Russian incursion into Ukraine, which is not a member of the Western mutual defence pact, but it avoiding calling it an invasion. Other European capitals accused the Kremlin of escalating a conflict that has revived Cold War-era animosities and chilled the region's struggling economies.

The United Nations said it could not verify the reports from the Ukrainian border but called for an immediate de-escalation.

Read more: Ukraine artillery destroys part of Russian armoured column, says Poroshenko - Telegraph