Moscow warns Kyiv over use of force against separatists:
Russia says Kyiv is trying to solve the crisis in eastern Ukraine through military force and that could lead to "irreversible consequences for Ukrainian statehood."
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin spoke to Interfax news agency on January 19 as Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of ignoring appeals for a cease-fire to be respected.
Ukraine's army said some 700 Russian troops had crossed into the country in the morning of January 19 to support pro-Russian separatists.
The allegation comes as Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian separatist fighters are battling for the control of the bitterly contested Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military claimed Ukrainian troops had retaken almost all parts of the ruined airport lost to separatists in recent weeks.
But a separatist leader, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, said that "all the Ukrainian Army's attempts to take the airport...have failed." (Interfax, AFP, Reuters, and AP)