\\\'Civil war\\\' warning for Ukraine as troops, tanks push east

IZYUM: Russia warned Tuesday that Ukraine was on the brink of "civil war" after Kiev's leaders pushed troops and tanks toward a flashpoint eastern city to counter a separatist surge backed by Moscow.
The 20 tanks and armoured personnel carriers were the most forceful response yet by Kiev's Western-backed government to the pro-Kremlin militants' occupation of state buildings in nearly 10 cities across Ukraine's rust belt.
Ukrainian forces set up a cement road barrier and began checking traffic leading to Slavyansk while fighters and attack helicopters circled overhead.
The economically depressed industrial city of 100,000 that has been under effective control of separatist gunmen since Saturday.
"They must be warned that if they do not lay down their arms, they will be destroyed," Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) General Vasyl Krutov told a group of reporters tracking the sudden tank movements.
He insisted that the militants were receiving support from several hundred soldiers from the Russian army's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) that had been dispatched to Slavyansk and surrounding villages.
Witnesses told AFP that at least two Ukrainian military helicopters had landed in the nearby town of Kramatorsk with reinforcements for the offensive.