By Gregory L. White in Moscow and Colleen McCain Nelson in Washington
Kiev and its Western backers accused Moscow of sending Russian
troops and armor to fight alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine,
dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and prompting
the U.S. and Europe to threaten new sanctions.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko convened an emergency
meeting of his security chiefs Thursday and vowed that "Ukraine can
defend itself."
He dispatched troops to meet the Russian-backed advance as his
government ordered the reinstatement of a draft this fall--though
it pledged not to send conscripts into the war zone.
But while officials in Kiev called on Western capitals for
support, including military aid, the initial reaction from the U.S.
and Europe included expressions of frustration with the Kremlin but
no immediate action.
President Barack Obama ruled out a U.S. military response but
said that the escalating incursion into Ukraine would bring more
costs for Moscow.
"It is not in the cards for us to see military confrontation
between Russia and the United States in this region," he said at a
White House news conference.
In an apparent sign of defiance, Russian President Vladimir
Putin issued an appeal to the separatists early Friday, hailing
their successes on the battlefield and calling on them to open
corridors to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to escape. He
demanded Kiev end its military operation immediately.
His appeal used the word "Novorossiya," a czarist-era term for
lands including much of what is now southern and eastern Ukraine
that has been taken up by the separatists. Mr. Putin first used the
term publicly in the spring, but he had since dropped it from
official statements until Friday.
Mr. Obama did not detail any new consequences that the Kremlin
might face, but the White House said later that he had discussed
the situation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and agreed that
it was necessary to consider additional economic sanctions on
Russia.
"We want a diplomatic solution; we won't let up in this," Ms.
Merkel said earlier in Berlin. "But we must observe that things in
recent days have become more difficult and have deteriorated."
In Brussels, diplomats said a summit of European leaders set for
Saturday could lay the groundwork for widening economic sanctions,
but that there doesn't appear to be support for sweeping new
measures.
Mr. Obama also said further actions would be discussed at a
North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit next week in the U.K.
Russia's latest moves suggested that the sanctions so far
weren't enough to serve as a deterrence, despite helping to push
its economy into recession. The Russian benchmark Micex equity
index fell 2% on the tensions, while the ruble weakened to the
lowest level against the dollar in nearly six months.
A senior NATO official said Thursday that more than 1,000
Russian troops were fighting alongside the separatists in eastern
Ukraine, by far the largest such force ever reported by the
alliance. But he stopped short of calling it an invasion, saying it
represented an "incursion" apparently aimed at preventing Kiev's
forces from defeating the rebels.
NATO also released new satellite photos that it said showed
Russian forces engaged in military operations in Ukraine. The
photos showed Russian self-propelled artillery units moving through
the Ukrainian countryside and setting up firing positions in the
area of Krasnodon, NATO said.
This and other evidence shows "a severe escalation in the
situation" over the past two weeks, said Brig. Gen. Nico Tak, head
of NATO's crisis-management center. NATO planned to hold an
emergency meeting on Friday at the request of Ukraine.
At a U.N. Security Council meeting, Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin did not deny there were Russians fighting in Ukraine, but
said they were volunteers. "No one is hiding that," he said.
Mr. Obama called the moves a continuation what Russia has done
for months.
"Russia determined that it had to be a little more overt in what
it had already been doing, but it's not really a shift," the
president said.
A Ukrainian diplomat at the United Nations, Oleksandr
Pavlichenko, urged the West to act urgently. "How many more red
lines are to be crossed before this challenge is addressed?" he
said.
Earlier in the day, a rebel leader in Ukraine also said for the
first time that Russian active-duty military members were fighting
in Ukraine, although he said they were in the country for short
stints, while on vacation.
"I'll say openly that fighting among us are active military who
prefer not to spend a vacation on the beach," Alexander
Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk Peoples'
Republic, said on Russian state television. "They are among us
brothers who are fighting for their freedom."
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had seized the coastal
town of Novoazovsk and several villages near the border this
week.
"Columns of heavy armor, a large quantity of arms, and troops of
Russian regular army units crossed through a part of the border not
under control," Mr. Poroshenko said before the meeting with his
security chiefs, according to his website.
But he called for Ukrainians to remain calm. "The situation is
of course extraordinarily difficult...but it is controllable,
controllable enough that we must not give in to panic," he
said.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council approved the
reinstatement of conscription and said it would seek the status of
a special ally outside NATO from the U.S., although it wasn't clear
if Washington or the other members would back that.
Western leaders have for months said a Russian invasion of
eastern Ukraine would prompt harsher economic sanctions and
international isolation on Russia. But President Obama has also
made clear that the U.S. and its allies won't intervene militarily
to stop Russian forces.
Kiev's military, underequipped and heavily reliant on poorly
trained volunteer units, would be no match for a major force from
Russia.
If threats of more Western sanctions failed to deter Moscow,
Kiev would likely be forced to agree to a cease-fire that left the
separatists--and their sponsors in Russia--in control of a
substantial part of Ukraine.
That would be a dramatic setback for Mr. Poroshenko's
pro-Western government and a severe blow to Ukraine's
already-shrinking economy, as well as a threat to his ambitions for
closer ties with the European Union and U.S.
Western nations have grown increasingly alarmed. Speaking before
French ambassadors in Paris, President François Hollande said any
incursion by Russian troops inside Ukraine would be "intolerable"
and warned that Moscow would expose itself to a new round of
sanctions if it didn't respect the sovereignty of its western
neighbor.
"Russia cannot simultaneously aspire to be a world power in the
21st century and not play by the rules," the French president
said.
But it is unclear how big an appetite European countries have
for more sanctions on Russia, a major trading partner, with
economies on the continent already slowing.
The EU had hoped that diplomatic efforts, which led to a meeting
in Minsk, Belarus, on Tuesday between Messrs. Poroshenko and Putin,
would lead to a negotiated settlement. But the latest developments
made that prospect seem remote.
After falling back before the advance in the southeast,
Ukrainian troops are now digging in near the strategically
important port city of Mariupol, which had been one of the first
Kiev reclaimed from rebels earlier this year. The Russian news
agency Interfax cited pro-Russian rebels as saying they will be
taking the city "in the coming days."
Ukraine's security council said the assault on Novoazovsk on
Wednesday was preceded by missile fire from across the Russian
border, followed by the incursion of "two columns of Russian
military equipment." The council said Russian forces had taken
control of Novoazovsk and surrounding villages, as well as villages
further north, toward Donetsk.
At the main roadblock on the road east from Mariupol, a few
dozen pro-Kiev soldiers and volunteers armed with rifles stood at
the post of concrete blocks with two armored vehicles.
They were digging trenches, but several despaired at what they
said was lack of support, with no artillery or tanks to bolster
their defensive position.
"What can we do with rifles against tanks?" asked one bearded
fighter in his 20s.
James Marson, Philip Shishkin and Naftali Bendavid contributed
to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of
Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, as Jan. (Aug. 28,
2014)
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com and Gregory L.
White at greg.white@wsj.com