Russian humanitarian convoy approaches Luhansk

The Russian humanitarian convoy is going to arrive in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk soon, the Russian Foreign Ministry says in a statement. The convoy is not accompanied by representatives of the Red Cross Committee and is moving without the Ukrainian authorities' permission.

In response, Ukraine declared that Russia had launched a "direct invasion" of its territory after Moscow sent a convoy of aid trucks across the border into eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels are fighting government forces, Reuters reports.

Russia, which has thousands of troops close to the border, warned against any attempt to "disrupt" the convoy, which it said was a purely humanitarian operation; but it did not say what action it might take if Kiev's military intervened.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the entry of the trucks without Kiev's permission as a "flagrant violation of international law."

However Reuters cites a senior security chief as saying that the Ukrainian forces would not attack the trucks, and had allowed them in, even without proper clearance, to avoid "provocations".