The presidents of Russia and Ukraine will hold key talks with little hopes for a breakthrough in resolving the raging conflict pitting Kiev against pro-Moscow separatist rebels.
Hours before the crunch talks on Tuesday, Kiev ratcheted up tensions by releasing footage purporting to show 10 Russian soldiers captured on its territory who a Moscow military source claimed had crossed into Ukraine "by accident".
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian leader Vladimir Putin arrived in Minsk for a meeting with top EU officials and the leaders of Kazakhstan and Belarus, in a bid to defuse tensions that some fear could trigger all-out war between Kiev and its former Soviet master, Moscow.
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice slammed Russia for "military incursions" into Ukraine using artillery, air defence systems, tanks and troops, that she said represented a "significant escalation" in the conflict.
"Repeated Russian incursions into Ukraine unacceptable. Dangerous and inflammatory," she wrote on Twitter.
Kiev's security service said paratroopers from Russia's 98th airborne division were captured about 50 kilometres southeast of the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
Ukrainian media aired footage on Tuesday purporting to show the captured Russian paratroopers confessing to entering Ukraine in armoured convoys.
"We travelled here in columns not along the roads but across the fields," says one of the men who identifies himself as corporal Ivan Milchakov from the 331st parachute regiment based in central Russia.
"I didn't even see when we crossed the border."
Kiev has long accused Moscow of stoking the separatist insurgency raging in its east, but this is the first time Ukrainian authorities have claimed to have captured soldiers from Russia's regular army.
"Officially, they are at exercises in various corners of Russia. In reality, they are participating in military aggression against Ukraine", Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said on his Facebook page.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the rebellion in Ukraine and demands Kiev halt its punishing offensive.
A Russian defence ministry source described the captured soldiers Tuesday as having crossed into Ukraine "by accident".
The soldiers had been "taking part in patrolling a section of the Russian-Ukrainian border; they crossed it most likely by accident, on an unequipped, unmarked section", Russian news agencies quoted the source as saying.
On the ground there appeared no end in sight to the four months of conflict that has already claimed about 2200 lives and has sent tensions between Russia and the West soaring to levels not seen since the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Ukraine's forces accused Russian troops of trying to open a "new front" after an armoured convoy crossed onto government-held territory Monday in the south of Donetsk region.
Russia unilaterally sent about 230 lorries carrying what it claimed was 1,800 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the rebel-held city of Lugansk on Friday after accusing Kiev of intentionally delaying the mission. Kiev condemned the move as a "direct invasion".
As Ukraine's political transition continues, Poroshenko on Monday announced long-awaited early parliamentary elections for October 26.
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