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 Although both sides have reported cross-border shootings in the
past, it appears to be the first time Moscow has reported fatalities
on its side of the border in the three-month conflict which has
killed hundreds of people in Ukraine.
Kiev called the accusation its forces had fired across the border
"total nonsense" and suggested the attack could have been the work
of rebels trying to provoke Moscow to intervene on their behalf. The
rebels denied they were responsible.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who earlier turned down an
invitation to attend the World Cup soccer final in Brazil where he
may have met Russia's Vladimir Putin, accused Russian forces of
crossing the border and attacking Ukrainian servicemen.
In a telephone conversation with the European Union's Herman Van
Rompuy, he called on the EU to consider "the illegal crossing of the
Russian-Ukrainian border of heavy military equipment and an attack
by Russian soldiers on the positions of Ukrainian servicemen," his
website said.
His comments were linked to an earlier report on Sunday by the
government's "anti-terrorist operation" that a convoy of about 100
separatist armored vehicles and trucks had crossed into Ukraine
carrying rebel fighters from Russia. A Ukrainian military spokesman
said Ukrainian artillery had destroyed the column.
Combat has intensified dramatically in Ukraine since a rebel missile
attack killed dozens of government troops on Friday.
Ukrainian forces said their warplanes on Sunday carried out five air
strikes on rebel bases near Luhansk airport, at Izvarino on the
border and against Chechen fighters who it said had occupied a
National Guard base at Lysychansk.
"The enemy suffered significant losses of men and equipment," a
statement from the "anti-terrorist operation" said, adding the
attacks had sown "fear and panic" among the rebels.
Rebels controlling Luhansk, on the border with Russia, said
Ukrainian forces had now begun to storm the town with about 50 tanks
and attack planes. There was no word of this from the Ukrainian
side.
In other incidents, local officials said 18 civilians had been
killed in shooting in Luhansk and Donetsk, the region's main city,
which is also controlled by separatists. There were no details of
these incidents.
BELLICOSE RESPONSE
Moscow's bellicose response to the cross-border shelling raises
again the prospect of Russian intervention, after weeks in which
President Vladimir Putin had appeared intent on disengaging, pulling
back tens of thousands of troops he had massed at the frontier.
Russia sent Ukraine a note of protest describing the incident as "an
aggressive act by the Ukrainian side against sovereign Russian
territory and the citizens of the Russian Federation", the Russian
Foreign Ministry said in a statement warning of "irreversible
consequences".
"This represents a qualitative escalation of the danger to our
citizens, now even on our own territory. Of course this naturally
cannot pass without a response," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Grigory Karasin told Rossiya-24 state TV.
Russia's Investigative Committee said a shell had landed in the yard
of a house in a small town on the Russian side of the frontier,
killing a man and wounding a woman. The Russian town is called
Donetsk, sharing the name of the Ukrainian city of 1 million people
that the rebels have declared capital of an independent "people's
republic".
Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and
Defence Council, said reports that Ukrainian forces were responsible
were "total nonsense and the information is untrue".
"The forces of the anti-terrorist operation do not fire on the
territory of a neighboring country, and they do not fire on
residential areas," he said. "We have many examples of terrorists
carrying out provocation shooting, including into Russian territory,
and then accusing Ukrainian forces of it."
The Ukrainian foreign ministry echoed this view and called on
Russian authorities to carry out "an objective and impartial"
evaluation of what it described as "a tragic incident". It said
Ukrainian authorities would cooperate in any investigation.
The rebels denied blame. Interfax news agency quoted the rebels'
self-proclaimed first deputy prime minister, Andrey Prugin, as
saying he was "90 percent certain" it was Ukrainian troops that had
fired across the border.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in April when armed
pro-Russian fighters seized towns and government buildings, weeks
after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in response to the
overthrow of a pro-Moscow president in Kiev.
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The fighting has escalated sharply in recent days after Ukrainian
forces pushed the rebels out of their most heavily fortified
bastion, the town of Slaviansk. DONETSK EMPTIES IN FEAR
Hundreds of rebels, led by a self-proclaimed defense minister from
Moscow, have retreated to the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, built
reinforcements and pledged to make a stand. The once-bustling city
has been emptying in fear of a battle.
"Everybody here is sitting on a suitcase. People are only prevented
from leaving by work - that is if they have any work. If they (the
Ukrainian forces) are going to bomb, then I shall, of course, go,
too," said Olga, 35.
On the streets there are fewer and fewer cars. Some drivers no
longer bother to stop at red lights since there are no police around
and few vehicles.
Rebel fighters vowed to fight to the end if the army comes.
"We are ready for them. We will not leave. Let women and children
leave. But I don't care much for grown men going. They are cowards,
rascals, scum," said a man named Lis, who described himself as an
officer in the Vostok battalion, a rebel force.
Kiev says Moscow has provoked the rebellion and allowed fighters and
heavy weapons to cross the border with impunity. It has struggled to
reassert control over the eastern frontier, recapturing border
positions from rebels.
 The past two days have seen an escalation in retaliation after
dozens of Ukrainian troops were killed in a rocket attack on a base
near the border on Friday. Kiev said it killed hundreds of rebels in
air strikes on Saturday, although there was no independent
confirmation of such high casualties and the rebels denied suffering
serious losses.
Ukrainian security spokesman Lysenko said on Sunday that forces had
used artillery to strike a convoy of about 100 armored vehicles and
trucks after confirming that the convoy was carrying "a large number
of recruits" into Ukraine from Russia.
He said seven Ukrainian service members had died in attacks in the
east in the past day.
The Donetsk city council said in a statement on its website on
Sunday that 12 people had been killed at a mining settlement near
the Ukrainian city. It gave no details of who had fired. Municipal
authorities in Luhansk, capital of the other rebellious eastern
province, said six people were killed in clashes there. It also gave
no details of who was to blame.
Western countries have threatened to impose harsh economic sanctions
on Moscow if it intervenes openly. Russia denies fuelling the
conflict, but Kiev and Western countries say it has supported the
rebels.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia's Putin, meeting briefly
on Sunday before the soccer final in Brazil, called for a
stepping-up of peace efforts in Ukraine, Putin's spokesman said.
 The pair have been in regular telephone contact over the Ukraine
crisis, with Merkel urging Putin to use his influence with
pro-Russian separatists to help bring about an end to fighting in
the east of the former Soviet republic.
Poroshenko in his telephone conversation with Van Rompuy said
Ukraine also wanted the release of all "hostages" held by Russia
including Nadezhda Savchenko, a military helicopter pilot seized by
rebels who is now being held in Russia.
(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets and Maria Tsvetkova in
Donetsk; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Peter Graff and
Will Waterman)
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