‘Invasion’ raises the stakes: Abbott revives G20 invitation issue

UKRAINE and the West have claimed that Russian troops are actively involved in tearing apart the east of the country.

French volunteers, supporters of pro-Russian rebels, walk past destroyed Ukrainian army vehicles in Lenin Square in Donetsk yesterday.

UKRAINE and the West said yesterday that Russian troops were actively involved in the fighting tearing apart the east of the country, raising fears of a direct military confrontation between Kiev and its former Soviet master.

Tony Abbott branded the movement of Russian armed troops into the Ukraine as an invasion and said Australia and other nations were weighing up whether Vladimir Putin would be welcome at the G20 summit in Brisbane in November.

“Clearly if, as seems to have been the case, Russian armed forces have simply moved across the border that is an invasion and it is utterly reprehensible,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is an absolutely clear-cut case of a larger country bullying a smaller country and should have no place in our world.

“You cannot have an international order if might is right.”

Mr Abbott said it was “a very important question” whether Mr Putin would be welcome in Brisbane as one of the G20 leaders. He said Australia and others would be weighing that up in the weeks ahead.

US President Barack Obama said it was “plain for the world to see” that Russian forces were fighting in Ukraine, despite repeated denials by Moscow.

Mr Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Russia’s actions “cannot remain without consequences” as the US and Europe raised the prospect of fresh sanctions against Russia.

“Russia has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the new images of Russian forces inside Ukraine make that plain for the world to see,” Mr Obama said.

“This ongoing Russian incursion into Ukraine will only bring more costs and consequences for Russia.”

NATO said at least 1000 Russian troops were on the ground supporting pro-Kremlin separatists who have been fighting against Kiev’s rule since April.

Mr Putin has called on the pro-Moscow separatists to open a ­“humanitarian corridor” to allow besieged Ukrainian troops to retreat from the town of Ilovaysk.

“I call on the rebel forces to open a humanitarian corridor for the Ukrainian troops who are surrounded, so as to avoid unnecessary casualties and to give them the opportunity to withdraw from the zone of operations,” Mr Putin said.

Encircled Ukrainian fighters have been engaged in a desperate fight for survival in Ilovaysk for more than a week as pro-Russian rebels, which had been on the ­retreat, staged a swift counter-­offensive. The US and the EU have already imposed a series of punishing sanctions on Moscow over the crisis, the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Ms Merkel said European leaders would discuss possible new measures against Moscow at a summit in Brussels today.

US envoy Samantha Power, at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, ­demanded in blunt terms that Russia “stop lying”.

“The mask is coming off,” she said. “We see Russia’s actions for what they are: a deliberate effort to support and now fight alongside illegal separatists in another ­sovereign country.”

Ukrainian President Petro ­Poroshenko described the situation as “extremely difficult” but “manageable for us not to panic”, as ­security chiefs announced that mandatory army conscription would resume in the autumn.

US officials have accused Russian troops of being behind a lightning counter-offensive that has seen pro-Moscow rebels seize swathes of territory from Ukrainian government forces, dramatically turning the tide in the four-month conflict.

Kiev said Russian soldiers had seized control of a key southeastern border town and a string of villages in an area where fighting had been raging for days. The US ambassador to Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, wrote on Twitter that Moscow’s troops were now “directly involved in the fighting” in Ukraine.

A NATO official said the supply of weapons to the rebels had also increased in both “volume and quantity”, with a diplomatic source later adding that ambassadors to the alliance were to hold an emergency meeting late last night.

Fears that the flare-up in the conflict could lead to all-out war pushed stocks down in Europe and the US. Russia’s rouble sank to a five-month low as stockmarkets in the country plunged over the possibility of new sanctions.

Kiev had called on the West for urgent help after a counter-offensive from the southeast border smashed through an army blockade around the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and threatened the government-held port city of Mariupol. The gains by the separatist fighters come after weeks of government offensives that had seen troops push deep into the last holdout rebel bastions in Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister ­Arseniy Yatsenyuk blasted Mr Putin for having “deliberately unleashed a war in Europe” and pleaded for urgent action.

A top rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, admitted that Russian troops were fighting alongside his insurgents, but said they were volunteers.

The latest claims of Russian manoeuvres are sparking fears that Moscow is seeking more than Crimea, which it annexed in March in the face of Western outrage.

The UN estimates the conflict has killed more than 2200 people and forced more than 400,000 to flee since April.