Ukraine says a battalion of Russian soldiers has set up a base in the southeast of the country.
UKRAINE President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed Russian regular forces have directly invaded the war-torn east part of the country and has called an emergency meeting of Ukraine's security and defence council.
The US ambassador in Kiev also declared Russia was"directly involved" in fighting in the war-torn east of Ukraine.
"An increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in fighting in Ukrainian territory," Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter, adding that Moscow was "directly involved in the fighting" and had sent in its "newest air defence systems including the SA-22".
A senior NATO official says that "well over a thousand" Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine.
"They support separatists, fighting with them and fighting amongst them," the official said on Thursday on condition of anonymity, adding that the supply of arms by Russia had increased in both "volume and quality".
The official, who was speaking to reporters ahead of a NATO summit next week in Britain, said the situation was made even more worrying because the key route between Donetsk and Novoazovsk, on the Sea of Azov close to the Russian border, had been cut off by pro-Kremlin forces.
"The supply line is cut" for the Ukrainian army, he said.
The official warned that the latest events in Ukraine "have made clear that the security paradigm in Europe has fundamentally changed" in the face of a "very aggressive Russia".
He said the past weeks have seen a "real upsurge in Russia's activity" in the flashpoint region, including the supply of weapons, ammunition, special forces training, intelligence and logistical support.
"All this has been systematically denied, adding confusion," he said.
The United Nations announced it would hold an emergency meeting in New York overnight to deal with the crisis.
Under attack ... Bystanders watch a fire consuming a school in downtown Donetsk after being hit by a shelling. Several civilians died when their car was completely burned after being hit by shell fragments in central Donetsk, the rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine. AFP PHOTO/ FRANCISCO LEONG Source: AFP
Ukraine's ambassador to the EU immediately called for "large-scale" military assistance from Brussels as the Russian troops were fighting in the east of the country.
Kostiantyn Yelisieiev called for EU leaders who are meeting Saturday to decide on "further resolute significant sanctions and large-scale military and technical assistance to Ukraine in order to stop the aggressor".
The European Union said it was "extremely concerned" by reports of an incursion by Russian troops into Ukraine.
"We are extremely concerned by the latest developments, including reports on what is happening on the ground," Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said at a news conference.
Ukraine's ambassador to the OSCE accused Russia of a "direct invasion".
"We registered a direct invasion by the Russian military into the eastern regions of Ukraine," Ihor Prokopchuk told journalists following a special meeting of the European security body to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine.
"The situation has significantly aggravated," he said in English, citing the capture "by regular Russian forces" of the key southeastern town of Novoazovsk and several other surrounding towns.
"Ukraine views the latest developments as active aggression against Ukraine," Prokopchuk said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded an explanation from Russia's President Vladimir Putin amid reports that Russian troops have launched an incursion into south-east Ukraine.
The BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Washington reported that the suspicion is that Moscow is opening a new front to divert Ukrainian forces from the besieged cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, where they have made significant advances against pro-Russian separatists.
Poroshenko said he called the meeting of Ukraine's security and defence council due to "the rapidly deteriorating situation in Donetsk region, in particular in Amvrosiyivka and Starobesheve, as an invasion of Russian forces has taken place".
READ POROSHENKO'S REVISED STATEMENT IN FULL
Earlier the security and defence council said the border town of Novoazovsk and other parts of Ukraine's southeast had fallen under the control of Russian forces who were staging a counteroffensive with rebels.
"A counteroffensive by Russian troops and separatist units is continuing in southeast Ukraine," the council said in a post on Twitter.
Invaded ... Workers try to repair the gate of a bakery damaged during a shelling in the Kievski neighbourhood in northern Donetsk on August 28, 2014. AFP PHOTO/ FRANCISCO LEONG Source: AFP
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 attacks on Ilovaysk and
Shakhtarsk, east of Donetsk.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having "deliberately unleashed a war in Europe" and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting, a called echoed by Lithuania.
Lithuania also accused Russia of a military "invasion" of conflict-torn Ukraine and called for a United Nations Security Council meeting over the issue.
"Lithuania strongly condemns the obvious invasion of the territory of Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Lithuania urges the UN Security Council to discuss this matter immediately." The Baltic nation, which is a temporary member of the council, called on Russia "to immediately withdraw its military forces, weaponry and equipment from the sovereign territory of Ukraine".
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said that "it is aggression and undeclared war, despite denials".
"Facts and NATO intelligence information make the denials less and less convincing," he added, calling on the West to provide military support for Ukraine.
Fatal attack ... Local residents look at a burned car where three people died when hit by shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. AP Photo / Mstislav Chernov Source: AP
The Kremlin was forced to admit on Tuesday that a number of its troops captured by Ukrainian forces had crossed the border "by accident".
Ukraine reported on Wednesday that a huge convoy of tanks and weaponry from Russia was moving through the southeast of the country, while Poland said its intelligence service and NATO have evidence that regular units of the Russian army are operating in Ukraine.
The three Baltic nations, which spent five decades under Soviet occupation until 1991, have been following the Ukraine events closely, concerned about the impact of Moscow's actions there on their security.
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics for his part took to Twitter on Thursday to condemn Moscow's actions.
"Russian invasion in Ukraine must be considered by the UN Security Council as act of aggression, UN must react accordingly, this is war," he said.
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has not said the country has invaded Ukraine and Putin himself has made no statement. The reports echo official denials earlier this year that Russia had sent paramilitary forces into Crimea, and the Soviet Union's reluctance to acknowledge it was at war in Afghanistan in 1979.
However, wives and mothers of Russian soldiers were set to demonstrate Thursday after reports of secret military funerals ratcheted up pressure on Moscow to come clean about its role in the Ukraine conflict.
The women said paratroopers from a base in Kostroma, north of Moscow, were sent on military drills and then went incommunicado, only for some of their husbands and sons to return in pine boxes.
"Cargo-200 arrived in Kostroma yesterday," Valeria Sokolova, a wife of one of the paratroopers, told AFP, using the Russian military term for body bags.
She said military commanders had refused to confirm that their loved ones had been sent to fight in Ukraine.
"There would only tell us that they are not in Russia," Sokolova said.
Running for their lives ... Two women rush across the street after shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. AP Photo / Mstislav Chernov Source: AP
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