Ukrainian military transport plane shot down along eastern border

A Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down yesterday along the country's eastern border with Russia, the defence minister said, adding the rocket may have been fired from Russia.

While rebels in conflict-wracked eastern Ukraine claimed responsibility for downing the Antonov-26, Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey said it might have come from across the border.

He said the plane was flying at an altitude of 6,500 metres, which he said was too high to be reached with the weapons used by the separatists fighting government troops. All eight people aboard managed to bail out safely, the defence ministry said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, meanwhile, accused Russian army officers of fighting alongside separatists in the east of the country and said Moscow was once more building up its troops on the joint border.

Poroshenko held an emergency meeting of his security chiefs after a weekend of Ukrainian air strikes on rebel positions near the border with Russia and charges by Moscow that Kiev killed a Russian man with a cross-border shell.

The war of words between Kiev and Moscow and intense fighting, in which Ukrainian forces say they inflicted heavy losses on the rebels, marked a sharp escalation in the conflict.

"Information has ... been confirmed that Russian staff officers are taking part in military operations against Ukrainian forces," Poroshenko said.