Loading ...Markets tumble on reports of Ukraine engaging Russian armor
E.U. warns of “gross violation of international law” as Russian armored column crosses border close to humanitarian aid convoy.
Stock markets fell sharply Friday on reports that Ukrainian forced had engaged and inflicted casualties on Russian armored units that had crossed the border into eastern Ukraine, in a development that appeared to make a full-blown war between the two countries much likelier.
In a statement on his office’s web site, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that his army’s artillery had “partially destroyed” a column of Russian armored vehicles that had crossed the border on Thursday night.
The comments, made in a summary of a telephone call to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, confirmed reports in the British newspapers The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph of around 20 armored personnel carriers heading towards the border from the Russian side. Reuters also cited NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as confirming the incursion.