At least 26 people were killed and dozens wounded on Wednesday when Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists fought a fierce battle on the outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk on Wednesday, in the most serious bout of fighting since a haphazardly observed ceasefire came into force in February.
"The military must be ready as much for a renewal of an offensive by the enemy in the Donbass as they are for a full-scale invasion along the whole length of the border with Russia. We must be truly ready for this," Mr Poroshenko said in an address to the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday. "We must be really prepared for this."
Mr Poroshenko claimed there were already 9,000 Russian troops in separatist-held territory inside Ukraine, and said their was a “colossal threat” that Russian-backed forces would launch large scale operations in the near future. Russia denies deploying troops to east Ukraine.
The sudden escalation in violence as sparked alarm in diplomatic circles, with UN security council calling an emergency session to discuss the sudden escalation on Friday.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, voiced alarm at “increased unpredictability, increased insecurity, increased nervousness,” in the region
Russian officials on Thursday blamed Ukraine for the violence, accusing Kiev of deliberately jeopardising a shaky ceasefire that has slowed but not stopped the war since February.
"The Ukrainian side has taken steps to aggravate tensions many times in the past in the run up to some major international events. This used to happen and we are seriously concerned now over the most recent manifestation of such activity," Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Thursday.
The Ukraine crisis is expected to take centre stage at the summit, where Barack Obama is expected to press EU leaders to maintain sanctions against Russia.
Mr Peskov appeared to be referring to continued peace talks and an upcoming G7 meeting to which Mr Putin is not invited.
The Ukraine crisis is expected to take centre stage at the summit, where Barack Obama is expected to press EU leaders to maintain sanctions against Russia.
Earlier Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said the February Minsk (ceasefire) agreements were “constantly under threat because of the actions of the Kiev authorities, trying to walk away from their obligations to foster direct dialogue with Donbass.”
Mr Lavrov’s comments appear to be a response to earlier calls from the United States for Russia to use its influence with the separatists to halt the fighting.
Mr Poroshenko’s warning of an “invasion” came a day after Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house, reportedly told senators to be ready to return to parliament at short notice should an emergency session be called.
The Russian president can call emergency sessions of the upper house to ask for permission to send Russian troops into action abroad.
Mr Peskov refused to rule out such a move when asked about the comments on Thursday night.
“The president may use any of his constitutional powers. It is his right,” Mr Peskov told reporters.
Ukraine said up to 1000 rebel fighters backed by up to a dozen tanks and heavy artillery launched an assault on their positions in Marinka, a western suburb of Donetsk, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Eduard Basurin, a military spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic, claimed the separatists had counter attacked in response to a Ukrainian assault.
Dramatic footage of the battle of Marinka apparently shot by separatist fighters and published by Russian agencies on Thursday showed well-equipped soldiers fighting with machine guns, armoured vehicles, and main battle tanks.
At least 26 people died in Wednesday’s fighting, according to reports by either side, with the separatists reporting 16 military and five civilian deaths. The Ukrainians said five of their soldiers were killed on all fronts, four of them at Marinka. Both sides also reported dozens of wounded.
Observers from the OSCE special monitoring mission inside separatist-held Donetsk said they saw a number of armoured vehicles headed towards the line of contact on Tuesday night and heard outgoing artillery and rocket fire from 04:30 in the morning.
In a spot report published on Thursday morning, the mission said that separatist leaders ignored multiple attempts by the monitoring mission to make contact to broker a truce during on Wednesday morning.
At 3pm on Wednesday Ukrainian commanders informed the OSCE that they would deploy heavy weapons back to the front to respond to the threat at Marinka.
Both Ukrainian and separatist commanders confirmed to the mission that Marinka was in Ukrainian hands by Wednesday evening. Ukrainian officials said that some fighting with “groups of bandits” had continued at Marinka on Thursday, and that shelling had occurred on several other parts of the front.
The battle in Marinka is especially significant because it was previously a static and relatively calm part of the front line, and was used by civilians as the main crossing point between Ukrainian and separatist-held territory.
Previous fighting had been concentrated at a few key flash points, including the village of Shirokino, east of the port of Mariupol, and Pesky, a village just outside Donetsk airport.
War broke out in eastern Ukraine, or Donbas, in April last year, shortly after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Separatists armed and supported by Moscow carved out two de facto independent territories called the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Ukrainian forces began to advance against the separatists last summer but were pushed back by the rebels, who were supported by Russian troops, forcing a first Minsk peace deal in September.
That deal collapsed but was revised in Belarus in February. Under the Minsk accord, heavy artillery should have been withdrawn at least 15 miles away from the frontline on both sides, but that has been only partially achieved.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, issued new calls for Minsk to be implemented last month.
At least 6,400 people have died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced or fled abroad as refugees.
Moscow denies sending any troops into eastern Ukraine but there have been numerous reports of Russian soldiers dying or getting wounded in the area, and of tanks and artillery crossing the border. Two Russian special forces soldiers who were arrested on Ukrainian territory last month are facing terrorism charges in Kiev.
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