Kiev forces destroy Russian armour inside Ukraine

ROSTOV, Aug 16 (Reuters):  Ukraine said its artillery destroyed part of a Russian armoured column that entered its territory overnight.
It also said Ukrainian forces came under shellfire from Russia in what appeared to be a major military escalation between the ex-Soviet states.
Russia's government denied its forces had crossed into Ukraine, calling the Ukrainian report "some kind of fantasy", and in turn raised its own serious concerns about activity by the US-led NATO defence alliance near its borders.
Moscow accused Kiev of trying to sabotage aid deliveries to eastern areas torn by fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Western-backed government of Moscow's former satellite.
In a call to US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, as reported by Russia's state news agency RIA, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow was "seriously concerned" by increased NATO activity and called for a ceasefire to get aid into Ukraine.
The agency did not specify what Western military movements he meant.
NATO said there had been a Russian incursion into Ukraine, which is not a member of its mutual defence pact, but it avoiding calling it an invasion.
Other European capitals accused the Kremlin of escalating a conflict that has revived Cold War-era animosities and chilled the region's struggling economies.
The United Nations said it could not verify the reports from the Ukrainian border but called for an immediate de-escalation.
Kiev and its Western allies have repeatedly accused Russia of arming pro-Moscow separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, and of sending undercover military units onto Ukrainian soil.