Russian troops 'directly involved' in Ukraine conflict

Washington and Kyiv said Thursday that Russian troops were actively involved in the fighting tearing apart eastern Ukraine, raising fears of a direct military confrontation on Europe's eastern flank.
      
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko scrapped a trip to Turkey and called an urgent meeting of his security chiefs over what a top official described as a "direct invasion" by Russia.
      
The latest rapid-fire developments have sent alarm bells ringing in the United States and in Europe, where EU leaders are set to discuss the crisis on their doorstep at a weekend summit.
      
Kyiv said Russian soldiers had seized control of a key southeastern border town and a string of towns in an area where fighting had been raging.
      
US officials accused Russian troops of being behind a lightning counter-offensive that has seen pro-Moscow rebels seize swathes of territory from government forces, dramatically turning the tide in the four-month conflict.        

"An increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in fighting on Ukrainian territory," the US ambassador to Kyiv Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter.
      
"Russia has also sent its newest air defence systems including the SA-22 into eastern Ukraine and is now directly involved in the fighting," he said.         

NATO said at least 1,000 Russian troops were on the ground.
      
But Russia swiftly denied the allegations, saying none of its soldiers were in Ukraine.
      
Kyiv called on the West for help after a counter-offensive from the southeast border with Russia appeared to smash through an army blockade around the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and threaten the...