Nato says Russian troops enter Ukraine as east risks open war

NATO said it saw columns of Russian troops and military equipment entering Ukraine this week, supporting allegations by the government in Kiev that the nation's eastern combat zone is close to returning to open war.

“We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air-defense systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine,” U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, NATO's top military commander, said in Bulgaria, according to a transcript.

Russia's Defense Ministry denied the accusations, the state-run RIA Novosti news service reported.

The separatists and their Russian backers are amassing troops in the areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions they've seized, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak told a government meeting earlier in Kiev. One Ukrainian serviceman died and five were wounded in the past 24 hours, a military spokesman said. There was no independent confirmation of the accounts.

Pressure has been building for days in eastern Ukraine, with the government and the militants accusing each other of gearing up for a renewed military push that risks swelling the conflict's death toll of more than 4,000. Friction over the region's fate is driving a wedge between Russia and its former Cold War foes. President Vladimir Putin denies stoking the unrest.

The yield on Ukraine's dollar-denominated note maturing July 2017 jumped 190 basis points to 17.97 percent by 3:58 p.m. in Kiev. Russia's ruble, which has fared worse than any other currency during the past three months, was 0.1 percent stronger at 46.3290 per dollar at 4:18 p.m. in Moscow.