MOSCOW —NATO said Friday that Russian artillery pieces are firing at the Ukrainian military from Russian territory and within Ukraine, dramatically escalating a conflict that has taken a new turn with the unauthorized entry into eastern Ukraine of what the alliance described as a “Russian so-called humanitarian convoy.”
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the entry of the convoy Friday as “a blatant breach of Russia’s international commitments” and said it could only deepen a crisis that Moscow has created and helped to fuel.
“The disregard of international humanitarian principles raises further questions about whether the true purpose of the aid convoy is to support civilians or to resupply armed separatists,” Rasmussen said in astatement from NATO headquarters. It was the strongest denunciation of Russia’s role in Ukraine that the alliance has issued, a spokeswoman said, and the first time that NATO has accused Russian forces of firing artillery at the Ukrainian army from within Ukraine.
The convoy’s move onto Ukrainian soil coincides with “a major escalation in Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine since mid-August, including the use of Russian forces,” the alliance leader said. “In addition, Russian artillery support — both cross-border and from within Ukraine — is being employed against the Ukrainian armed forces. We have also seen transfers of large quantities of advanced weapons, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery to separatist groups in Eastern Ukraine.”
Rasmussen added that NATO also “is observing an alarming build-up of Russian ground and air forces in the vicinity of Ukraine.”
He issued the statement after at least 145 trucks of a Russian humanitarian convoy crossed into Ukraine on Friday without the permission of Ukrainian authorities or the accompaniment of the International Committee of the Red Cross — a step that Ukraine’s top security official called a “direct invasion.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday morning that Moscow had run out of patience with “delays” and other “excuses” from Ukraine after a nearly 10-day standoff. It charged that Ukraine’s leaders were deliberately trying to slow-walk the delivery of aid to the war-torn region of Luhansk until “there is no one at all to provide help to.”
U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, the supreme allied commander in Europe, separately condemned “Russia’s illegal incursion” into Ukraine. “The humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine must be addressed, but not in a spurious manner that risks further inflaming the conflict,” he said.
He said NATO is especially concerned by the massing of 20,000 Russian “combat-ready troops” on the border with eastern Ukraine and the flow of Russian arms and operatives to pro-Moscow separatist forces. The unauthorized convoy raises “grave concern” about Russian motives and “indicates that Russia is more interested in resupplying separatists rather than supporting local populations,” Breedlove said in a statement.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said that since mid-August, the alliance has received multiple reports of the direct involvement in eastern Ukraine of Russian airborne, air defense and special operations forces.
The decision to send in the aid without the consent of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or Ukrainian authorities marked a dangerous new step in the four-month conflict. If Ukrainian forces fire on the trucks, they could trigger an all-out invasion by Russian forces that have accumulated by the tens of thousands across the border from eastern Ukraine. If they allow the trucks to disperse across the Luhansk region without any Ukrainian controls, Russia in effect will have imposed a cease-fire in the fight against pro-Russian separatists without Kiev’s permission.
Ukrainian authorities appeared to be scrambling Friday to decide how to respond to the border incursion. State security chief Valentyn Nalivaychenko told journalists in Kiev, “We consider this a direct invasion by Russia of Ukraine,” Reuters news agency reported. He said Ukrainian forces would not use force against the convoy because they want to avoid “provocations.”
But Ukraine’s prime minister struck a more confrontational tone.
“It’s clear that Russia is not planning to conduct any humanitarian mission. . . .We need to use all methods to stop Russian military aggression,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatensyuk said on national television, charging that Russia had been planning “this aggression” since the 2004 Orange Revolution.
Ukraine’s military officials surmised that Russia’s decision to come in without Ukraine’s permission was probably a trap.
“This is a provocation, and they expect us to attack the convoy,” Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Friday. “It’s very simple to shoot, but the consequences could be very destructive.”
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