Moscow denied the claims as “unfounded” and deputy ambassador to the UN Alexander Pankin told an emergency Security Council meeting that the alliance was making “another foray into propaganda”.
The US warned it was ready to work with allies in Europe to slap more sanctions on Russia for supporting the pro-Moscow separatists in east Ukraine, who have been battling Kiev since April.
“We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine,” US General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s commander in Europe, said in Sofia.
“We do not have a good picture at this time of how many. We agree that there are multiple columns that we have seen.”
The claims come amid growing fears of a return to all-out conflict despite a two-month ceasefire that has stopped much frontline fighting but not shelling at strategic flashpoints.
“We are deeply concerned by the possibility of a return to full-scale fighting,” UN Assistant Secretary-General Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen told the Security Council.
Ukraine Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said Kiev was preparing for a possible new round of fighting after seeing “increased activity” by Russia and pro-Moscow rebels in the east.
“The main task I see is to prepare for combat operations. We are doing this, we are readying our reserves,” General Poltorak said at a cabinet meeting in Kiev.
Observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe reported seeing a convoy of 43 unmarked military trucks — five towing Howitzer heavy artillery and another five towing multi-launch rocket systems — travelling into the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
It was the latest in a string of recent sightings of unmarked trucks and heavy weapons heading towards the frontline in rebel-controlled areas.
Russia “talks peace, but it keeps fuelling war”, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the council meeting.
Mr Toyberg-Frandzen said the conflict “may simmer in this way for months with sporadic low-level battles” or could develop into a “frozen and protracted conflict that would (last) for years or even decades to come.”
Washington insisted Ukraine had the right to defend its territory and warned a new round of sanctions against Russia was in store. “We and our allies and partners would be prepared to broaden and deeping existing sanctions,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Several hours of heavy artillery fire rocked Donetsk yesterday, the most intense fighting since the weekend.
Government forces accused the rebels of trying to capture a strategic location along the volatile frontline, delineated as part of the ceasefire deal, north of the second-largest rebel stronghold of Lugansk.
With fears rising of all-out war, Ukraine’s central bank hiked interest rates yesterday by 1.5 percentage points to 14 per cent after inflation rose to nearly 20 per cent last month, while the currency, the hryvnia, continued to tumble on money markets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to face pressure at a G20 summit in Brisbane.
The West accuses Russia of supplying pro-Kremlin separatists with the missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people onboard, including 38 Australian citizens and residents.
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