A handout photo provided by DigitalGlobe via NATO allegedly shows six Russian 153mm 2S19 self-propelled guns located in Russia near Kuybyshevo, four miles south of the Ukraine border
A satellite image provided to Reuters by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe today, and taken by DigitalGlobe last week, shows what is reported by SHAPE to be Russian Self-Propelled Artillery in Ukraine
'I have taken the decision to cancel the visit to Turkey due to the sharp deterioration of the situation in the Donetsk region, particularly in Amvrosiyivka and Starobesheve, as Russian troops have been sent into Ukraine.'
Poroshenko urgently summoned a meeting of his National Security and Defence Council.
'The place for the president today is in Kiev,' said Poroshenko, who was due to attend the inauguration of Turkey's president elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Senior Interior Ministry adviser Anton Heraschenko warned: 'The incursion of Putin's Russian Federation regular army into Ukraine is an accomplished fact.'
He claimed there was a need for martial law in Ukraine and urged EU countries to halt buying Russian oil, gas, timber and other natural resources, and also to discontinue granting of any credits, and freeze Russian state companies' assets in the EU.
A senior UK Government source told MailOnline: 'We are extremely concerned about the situation there [in Ukraine]. There seems to be mounting evidence that Russia is carrying out large scale incursion into South and East Ukraine.'
A woman cleans the debris of broken windows in her apartment in the Kievski neighbourhood in northern Donetsk on Thursday
Workers try to repair the gate of a bakery damaged during shelling in the Kievski neighbourhood in northern Donetsk on Thursday
Ukraine's security and defence council today said the border town of Novoazovsk and other parts of Ukraine's south-east had fallen under the control of Russian forces who together with rebels were staging a counter-offensive.
It said Ukrainian government forces had withdrawn from Novoazovsk 'to save their lives' and were now reinforcing troops in the port city of Mariupol.
It added that Russian forces and separatists were combining to launch a counter-offensive on Ilovaysk and Shakhtarsk, east of the city of Donetsk.
A Ukraine security spokesman has also said two columns of tanks from Russia have entered a strategic town.
Ukrainian security council spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko says Ukrainian forces were fired upon with Grad missile systems from Russian territory at about 11am.
Lysenko says about an hour and a half later, two columns, including tanks and other fighting vehicles began an attack.
Residents stand near a damaged building with broken windows in the Kievski neighbourhood in northern Donetsk
A blown up railway-bridge blocking the road between Charkov and Donetsk, in Ukraine
Smoke covers the centre of rebel-held Donetsk after a hospital and school were damaged in recent shelling
Bystanders watch a fire consuming a school in downtown Donetsk on Thursday after being hit by shelling
They later entered Ukraine from Veselo-Voznesenka and Maximovo of the Rostov region in Russia.
Ukrainian border guards retreated because they didn't have heavy equipment.
A top NATO official said at least 1,000 Russian troops had entered Ukraine with sophisticated equipment and have been in direct 'contact' with Ukrainian soldiers, resulting in casualties.
He called that a conservative estimate and said another 20,000 Russian troops were right over the Russian border.
Meanwhile, Russian-backed separatists have taken the strategic high point of Savur-Mohyla in eastern Ukraine, which looks out over wide areas of the region, a Ukrainian military source said today.
Asked by Reuters if the rebels had captured Savur-Mohyla, east of Donetsk, the source replied: 'Yes. We have such information.'
Rebel advances this week have opened a new front in the conflict just as Ukraine's army appeared to have gained the upper hand, virtually encircling the separatists in their main strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine has now called for urgent and 'large-scale' military assistance from EU countries.
EU leaders must decide on 'further resolute significant sanctions and large-scale military and technical assistance to Ukraine in order to stop the aggressor', said ambassador to Brussels Kostiantyn Yelisieiev.
The EU said today it was 'extremely concerned' at reports of Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine.
Ukraine premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk has demanded the West block all Russia's financial assets and banking operations until it withdraws the troops it allegedly moved into his country.
'The sanctions introduced have not brought any results,' he warned.
A relative (centre) of a Ukrainian soldier is helped as she is about to faint during a protest rally in front of the Ukrainian defense ministry building in Kiev on Thursday
Protesters are demanding help for the volunteer battalions of Donbass, Mirotvorets, Kherson and Dnipro-1 surrounded by pro-Russian militants for the fifth day in the small city of Izvaryne
A protester holds a placard declaring 'Enough, surrender the Ukraine!' during the rally in front of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry in Kiev
'In this situation, one of the possible elements to deter Russian aggression must be considering imposing sanctions on freezing all Russian assets and suspending all Russian bank transactions in European Union member states, the United States and G7 countries.'
Prominent Ukrainian female politician Yulia Tymoshenko demanded the imposition of martial law.
The ex-premier - jailed under the regime of former president Viktor Yanukovych - declared: 'The Russian army invaded Ukrainian territory at night.
'We cannot bury our heads in the sand any longer and describe everything going on in eastern Ukraine as terror actions by unknown separatists.'
She called for an appeal for effective military assistance from the West.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt today warned that an increasing number of Russian troops and ultra-modern equipment are directly involved in fighting inside Ukraine
Russia's defence ministry declined to comment on reports of Russian tanks in Novoazovsk. A Russian diplomatic source said: 'The Russian authorities clearly said many times there are no regular Russian troops there. Russia is not taking part in this armed conflict.'
But a member of President Vladimir Putin's advisory council on human rights, Ella Polyakova, told Reuters she believed Russia was carrying out an invasion of Ukraine.
'When masses of people, under commanders' orders, on tanks, APCs and with the use of heavy weapons, (are) on the territory of another country, cross the border, I consider this an invasion,' Polyakova told Reuters.
The US meanwhile has also warned today that an increasing number of Russian troops and ultra-modern equipment are directly involved in fighting inside Ukraine.
The warning came as a separatist leader revealed Russian soldiers, on leave from their posts, were fighting against Ukrainian troops alongside the rebels.
The US also warned that an increasing number of Russian troops and ultra-modern equipment were directly involved in fighting inside Ukraine.
Moscow's earlier intervention with tanks, armoured vehicles and multiple rocket launchers was 'insufficient to defeat Ukraine's armed forces', said US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.
'So now an increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in fighting on Ukrainian territory.
Pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has reportedly said serving Russian soldiers, on leave from their posts, were fighting Ukrainian troops alongside the rebels
'Russia has also sent its newest air defence systems including the SA-22 into eastern Ukraine and is now directly involved in the fighting.'
The claims follow German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenging Vladimir Putin on the presence of Russian forces inside Ukraine.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council has also accused the Russian army of transferring military equipment and personnel to border regions, and from there across the frontier.
Russian state television meanwhile has reported that East Ukrainian pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has said serving Russian soldiers, on leave from their posts, were fighting Ukrainian troops alongside the rebels.
A column of Ukrainian tanks, heavy weapons and trucks were pictured massing near the town of Mariupol on Wednesday after reports Russian armoured vehicles crossed the border
Ukrainian soldiers towing a heavy artillery gun rest outside Mariupol, a short distance from the town of Novoazovsk that Pro-Moscow separatists began shelling on Wednesday
'Among us are fighting serving soldiers, who would rather take their vacation not on a beach but with us, among brothers, who are fighting for their freedom,' said Zakharchenko in an interview posted on Vesti.ru, the Internet site of a Russian state television station.
French President Francois Hollande today said that it would be 'intolerable and unacceptable' if it was proved true that Russian troops had entered Ukrainian territory.
'Europe will maintain (sanctions), even increase them if the escalation increases. I don't want it because it is neither in Russia's nor our interest,' Hollande told an annual conference of French diplomats in Paris.
'Russia cannot hope to be a 21st century power yet not respect the rules.'
UKRAINE BLOCKS EXTRADITION OF BRITISH-EDUCATED MAN ACCUSED OF PLOTTING TO KILL VLADIMIR PUTIN
By WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE
Adam Osmayev, 33, formerly a student of Buckingham University, was detained two years ago in Odessa after an alleged botched training exercise saw a suspect killed by a homemade bomb
Ukraine has blocked the extradition to Russia of a British-educated man accused of plotting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was revealed today .
Adam Osmayev, 33, formerly a student of Buckingham University, was detained two years ago in Odessa after an alleged botched training exercise saw a suspect killed by a homemade bomb.
An ethnic Chechen from a wealthy family, he claimed he was framed by the secret services in Russia and under the regime of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine.
The FSB - Russian secret services - believe he is a radical Islamist and claimed he 'lived in London for a long time' but it is understood he did not complete his university course in Britain.
The alleged plot to assassinate Putin by blowing up his car in central Moscow was revealed during the strongman's election campaign in 2012, prompting claims that the case against him was exaggerated and the arrests were politically motivated.
Osmayev's lawyer Olha Chertok said the Ukrainian Prosecutor General had decided against extraditing him to Russia, where he could face up to 25 years in jail, pending further investigations into the case.
The decision comes amid a breakdown in relations between former allies Russia and Ukraine.
Osmayev's alleged accomplice, Ilya Pyanzin, was extradited to Russia in August 2012. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2013.
The former Buckingham University student was in 2012 put under investigation in Ukraine for 'establishment of a terrorist organization' and 'preparations for a terrorist attack'.
A Ukrainian court had upheld his extradition but his lawyers filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Osmayev retracted an earlier 'confession' on the Putin plot, claiming he had been physically and psychologically abused by the ex-KGB in Kiev.
Ukrainian secret services agents during Yanukovych's era repeatedly struck him and covered his head in a plastic bag, he claimed.
He alleged they injected him with drugs and threatened him with further torture unless he confessed to a plot to kill both Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
His confession was 'the result of physical and psychological pressure which the law enforcement services put me under since the moment I was detained,' he said.
He was beaten so badly, he could not stand for two months, he claimed.
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