Moscow: Ukraine fires on Russia

1 said killed; Kiev government denies shooting at neighbor

Two Russian armored personal carriers roll near the border with Ukraine outside the Russian town of Donetsk in Rostov-on-Don region, Sunday, July 13, 2014. Russia's foreign ministry said Sunday that a Ukrainian shell hit a town on the Russian border, killing one person and seriously injuring two others. But Ukraine denied firing a shell into Russian territory. (AP Photo/Sergei Pivovarov)
Two Russian armored personal carriers roll near the border with Ukraine outside the Russian town of Donetsk in Rostov-on-Don region, Sunday, July 13, 2014. Russia's foreign ministry said Sunday that a Ukrainian shell hit a town on the Russian border, killing one person and seriously injuring two others. But Ukraine denied firing a shell into Russian territory. (AP Photo/Sergei Pivovarov)

MOSCOW -- Russia's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that a Ukrainian shell hit a Russian border town, killing one person and seriously injuring two others. Ukraine denied firing a shell into Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed "grave concern" over the shelling, Russian news agencies quoted his spokesman as saying. A statement from Russia's Foreign Ministry called the event a "provocation," and warned of the possibility of "irreversible consequences, the responsibility for which lies on the Ukrainian side."

Russia said the shell hit the courtyard of a residential building in the Russian town of Donetsk -- near the Ukrainian city of the same name that has become a rebel stronghold -- early on Sunday. Ukraine's east has been mired for months in a pro-Russia separatist insurgency against the Kiev government.

Russian officials summoned the Ukrainian charge d'affaires to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow to protest the civilian's death.

Ukrainian officials denied that any Ukrainian shells had fallen on Russian territory. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, was quoted by Interfax-Ukraine as saying that Ukrainian forces "do not fire on the territory of a neighboring country. They do not fire on residential areas." He placed blame for the attack on the rebels.

Lysenko told journalists that there had been shelling in the area early Sunday coming from both rebel and Ukrainian army positions. Pro-Russia separatists made a "massive artillery strike" on Ukrainian military forces in Luhansk, just across the border checkpoint from where the shelling death is purported to have taken place, he said.

He added that the strike served as cover for "the passage of a major mercenary force into Ukrainian territory" of "around 100 units of armed vehicles and trucks." Once the column of vehicles was discovered, Ukrainian artillery positions fired on them, he said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko late Sunday urged the European Union to investigate what he said was a border incursion by "heavy military equipment" and attacks from Russian military positions on Ukrainian troop positions, his office said in a statement.

Poroshenko vowed last week to respond with firmness to attacks by the pro-Russian insurgency.

Russia has made repeated claims that settlements along its porous border with Ukraine -- which the West and Kiev say is a key supply route for the rebels -- have been hit by Ukrainian fire, but no deaths have been previously reported.

The claims come as Putin, whose nation will host the 2018 World Cup, was attending Sunday's final in Rio de Janeiro to take part in a hand-over ceremony with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Brazilian officials said Saturday that Putin and Poroshenko would attend the match. But Poroshenko announced Sunday that he wouldn't be going. Talks between Russia and Ukraine over a cease-fire between the rebels and Kiev's troops have stalled in recent weeks, as Ukrainian troops have succeeded in pushing insurgents out of key towns in the east.

Putin met Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, also in Rio for the World Cup final, to discuss eastern Ukraine. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement that the two leaders "agreed that as soon as possible direct talks should take place between the Ukrainian government and separatists in form of a video conference." Selecting a location for talks has been a key sticking point for both sides.

Ukraine's Donetsk, where rebels have gathered to regroup after a major Ukrainian offensive last week, was quiet on Sunday. But some 150 people from the settlement of Marynka, on the outskirts of the city, were moving into dormitories at a local university on Sunday after their homes were bombarded during the night.

Ukrainian defense officials said Sunday that the air force had performed 16 sorties and carried out five airstrikes on rebel positions over the previous day.

Interfax-Ukraine cited Lysenko on Sunday as saying that several dozen rebels had been killed and rocket launchers and armored vehicles destroyed in the attacks. He also said that seven servicemen had been killed and 30 wounded in the past day.

On Sunday, Ukrainian government forces were engaged in a major assault on the rebel-held eastern city of Luhansk, and separatist officials said that the military appeared to be gaining territory.

Information for this article was contributed by Laura Mills, Peter Leonard and Balint Szlanko of The Associated Press and by Karoun Demirjian and Michael Birnbaum of The Washington Post.

A Section on 07/14/2014

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