Russia warns Ukraine after shell crosses border

Russia threatened Ukraine on Sunday with ‘irreversible consequences’ after a Russian man was killed by a shell fired across the border, while Kiev said Ukrainian warplanes struck again at separatist positions in the east of the country, inflicting big losses. Although both sides have reported cross-border shootings in the past, it appears to be the first time Moscow has reported fatalities on its side of the border in the three-month conflict which has killed hundreds of people in Ukraine. Kiev called the accusation its forces had fired across the border ‘total nonsense’ and suggested the attack could have been the work of rebels trying to provoke Moscow to intervene on their behalf. The rebels denied they were responsible. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who earlier turned down an invitation to attend the World Cup soccer final in Brazil where he may have met Russia's Vladimir Putin, accused Russian forces of crossing the border and attacking Ukrainian servicemen. In a telephone conversation with the European Union's Herman Van Rompuy, he called on the EU to consider ‘the illegal crossing of the Russian-Ukrainian border of heavy military equipment and an attack by Russian soldiers on the positions of Ukrainian servicemen,’ his website said. His comments were linked to an earlier report on Sunday by the government's ‘anti-terrorist operation’ that a convoy of about 100 separatist armored vehicles and trucks had crossed into Ukraine carrying rebel fighters from Russia. A Ukrainian military spokesman said Ukrainian artillery had destroyed the column, according to Reuters.