A Ukrainian government official announced that Russia has launched a full scale invasion against Ukraine and is already supplying the pro-Russian rebels with tanks and even warplanes.
President Petro Poroshenko announced that he had cancelled a planned trip to Turkey and explained that this change of schedule was due to Russian troops being deployed in the country. The president told BBC, "I have made a decision to cancel my working visit to the Republic of Turkey due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region... as Russian troops were actually brought into Ukraine."
Right now there is combat taking place between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the southeast area of Donetsk. Pro-Russian rebels are reported to be receiving a great deal of Russian support with tanks and armored personnel carriers. Around 3,000 to 4,000 Russian civilians are believed to have joined the rebel forces. A representative of the rebel forces told Russian TV that all these people had joined the cause voluntarily.
The same rebel leader even added that many of the Russians who are fighting along with the Ukrainian rebels were former Russian military officials. He told Russian TV, "There are also many in the current Russian military that prefer to spend their leave among us, brothers who are fighting for their freedom, rather than on a beach."
Arseniy Yaatsenyuk, the Prime Minister of Ukraine has requested a United Nations Security Council meeting. He told the rest of the international community that the economic sanctions the U.N. placed upon Russia after the first invasion last year proved to be ineffective, and suggested a more effective method would be to ban all banking transactions with Russia until Russia agrees to withdraw its forces and weapons from Ukraine.
Even the United States has confirmed that the rebels are indeed using Russian weapons, supplied by Vladimir Putin’s administration. On the other hand, Russia has denied all the accusations regarding the Ukrainian rebels, and added that it was Ukraine’s job to stop the crisis that was going on in their territory.
