With Russian forces apparently rolling across eastern Ukraine, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told Yahoo News on Thursday that it is past time to call the escalating conflict a “war” and to label Moscow’s actions an “invasion.”

“By any conventional definition of war, there is war happening between Ukraine and Russia. And it’s been occurring essentially since the invasion of Crimea” in February, Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a telephone interview.

When Russian forces reportedly rolled into eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, the White House called it a “military movement,” “military activities” and “a continued effort to destabilize the situation in eastern Ukraine.” The State Department referred to an “incursion” and explicitly declined to call the escalating conflict an invasion or “war.”

Back in March, however, National Security Adviser Susan Rice had condemned Putin’s “invasion and annexation of Crimea,” a strategic peninsula in Ukraine’s south.

It's not clear whether calling Russia's latest military moves a "war" or an "invasion" would change much, beyond raising the temperature of already heated rhetorical exchanges between Washington and Moscow. That, in turn, might make an already elusive diplomatic solution even more unlikely.

Murphy said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to “commence a conventional invasion” in eastern Ukraine was part of a pattern of “panicked reactions to moments of weakness.”

Earlier, NATO released satellite images that, the alliance said, showed Russian armored columns operating inside Ukraine. Russia has denied invading its neighbor.

Ukraine government forces had recently enjoyed successes against Russian-backed separatists, said the Connecticut lawmaker, prompting Putin to send in troops to “keep that part of the conflict frozen.”

“I don’t think he’s going to be dumb enough to send 20,000 troops inside Ukraine,” Murphy said.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Jen Psaki bristled Thursday at the notion that avoiding the term “invasion” had any significant bearing on U.S. policy.

“There’s no new set of obligations based on that kind of terminology,” Psaki said.

“Our focus is more on what Russia is doing, what we’re going to do about it, than what we’re calling it,” she told reporters. “Regardless of what it’s called, Russia’s actions need to stop.”

Senator: Time to call Ukraine conflict a 'war'

When Russian forces reportedly rolled into eastern Ukraine, the White House called it a "military movement."
Avoiding the term 'invasion'

Obama leads condemnation as West rounds on Russia

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine and the West said that Russian troops were actively involved in the fighting tearing apart the east of the country, raising fears of a direct military confrontation between Kiev and its former Soviet master.

US President Barack Obama led a chorus of growing international condemnation over the escalating crisis, saying it was "plain for the world to see" that Russian forces were fighting in Ukraine, despite more repeated denials by Moscow.

Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Russia's actions "cannot remain without consequences" as the US and Europe raised the prospect of fresh sanctions against Russia.

"Russia has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the new images of Russian forces inside Ukraine make that plain for the world to see," Obama said on Thursday, ratcheting up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"This ongoing Russian incursion into Ukraine will only bring more costs and consequences for Russia."

NATO said at least 1,000 Russian troops were on the ground supporting pro-Kremlin separatists who have been fighting against Kiev's rule since April.

The United States and the European Union have already imposed a series of punishing sanctions on Moscow over the crisis, the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Merkel said European leaders would discuss possible new measures against Moscow at a summit in Brussels on Saturday.

On a day of fast-moving developments, US envoy Samantha Power, at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, demanded in blunt terms that Russia "stop lying".

"The mask is coming off," she thundered.

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Pro-Russia fighters are seen in Troitsko-Khartsyzk, east of Donetsk, on August 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/F …

"We see Russia's actions for what they are: a deliberate effort to support and now fight alongside illegal separatists in another sovereign country."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the situation as "extremely difficult" but "manageable for us not to panic", as security chiefs announced that mandatory army conscription would resume in the autumn.

US officials have accused Russian troops of being behind a lightning counter-offensive that has seen pro-Moscow rebels seize swathes of territory from Ukrainian government forces, dramatically turning the tide in the four-month conflict.

Kiev said Russian soldiers had seized control of a key southeastern border town and a string of villages in an area where fighting had been raging for days.

- Russians 'directly involved' -

The US ambassador to Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, wrote on Twitter that Moscow's troops were now "directly involved in the fighting" in Ukraine.

A NATO official said the supply of weapons to the rebels had also increased in both "volume and quantity," with a diplomatic source later adding that ambassadors to the alliance would hold an emergency meeting Friday.

Obama on Ukraine, Russia and SyriaPlay Video

Fears that the flare-up in the conflict could lead to all-out war pushed stocks down in Europe and the United States, and Asia looked set to follow suit.

Russia's ruble sunk to a five-month low as stock markets in the country plummeted over the possibility of new sanctions.

Kiev had called on the West for urgent help after a counter-offensive from the southeast border smashed through an army blockade around the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and threatened the government-held port city of Mariupol.

The gains by the separatist fighters come after weeks of government offensives that had seen troops push deep into the last holdout rebel bastions in Ukraine's industrial heartland.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk blasted Putin for having "deliberately unleashed a war in Europe" and pleaded for urgent action.

A top rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, has admitted that Russian troops were fighting alongside his insurgents, but said they were on "holiday" after volunteering to join the battle.

The spiralling tensions come only days after Poroshenko and Putin held their first meeting in three months, but they failed to achieve any concrete breakthrough despite talk of a peace roadmap.

- No Ukraine guarantee -

The latest claims of Russian manoeuvres are sparking fears that Moscow is seeking more than Crimea, which it annexed in March in the face of Western outrage.

"The latest newsflow from eastern Ukraine suggests an increased risk that Russian President Putin may go well beyond snatching Crimea and destabilising the pro-Western government in Kiev. Instead, he is edging closer to an almost-invasion to occupy parts of southeastern Ukraine," said Berenberg bank analyst Christian Schulz.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insists the Kremlin is "not interested in breaking up" Ukraine.

The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed over 2,200 people and forced more than 400,000 to flee since April.

Russia vehemently opposes closer ties between Ukraine and NATO.

Concerns that Kiev could be drawn closer into the Western security alliance -- and towards Europe -- are seen as a key motivation behind Russia's actions in recent months.

Obama, who will host Poroshenko at the White House on September 18, said while ex-Soviet states now in the alliance could expect a US military defense, such guarantees did not apply to non-member Kiev.

Outrage over Russian invasion in Ukraine

European leaders urge Moscow to change course or suffer "very serious consequences."
U.S. envoy: 'Stop lying'

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Kurdish forces pound Islamic State militants northeast of Baghdad

Baghdad (AFP) - The jihadist Islamic State group has posted video of the execution of a captured Kurdish fighter, in a warning to Iraqi Kurdish leaders to end military cooperation with Washington, a monitoring group said.

The United States has carried out a wave of air strikes against the jihadists in northern Iraq, helping Kurdish forces to claw back ground lost to the militants earlier this month.

The video, titled "A message in blood to the leaders of the American-Kurdish alliance," opens with 15 men in orange jumpsuits standing around the IS flag.

Three of the men ask Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani "and the Kurdish government to end their relationship with the US... military intervention in northern Iraq," the SITE Intelligence Group monitoring service said.

"Any mistake or recklessness from you will lead to the (loss) of our life," SITE quoted one of the men as saying.

The video then cuts to three masked men dressed in black standing in front of a mosque with another man wearing an orange jumpsuit kneeling in front of them. They then behead him.

The video follows another released by IS showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley and threatening another kidnapped reporter Steven Sotloff with the same fate if US air strikes are not halted.

It also comes hot on the heels of video of scores of bodies that IS boasted were those of Syrian soldiers they had captured and executed following their seizure of a northern key air base last weekend.

The jihadists control a vast swathe of territory straddling Iraq and Syria where their abuses have sparked an international outcry.