Russia is moving columns of armored vehicles and combat troops into east Ukraine, NATO said Wednesday.

"We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defense systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine," said NATO's supreme allied commander, U.S. Gen. Phillip Breedlove, according to Agence France-Presse.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, the official spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry denied Breedlove's assertions.

"We've already stopped taking note of the unfounded statements by NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe," Konashenkov told reporters Wednesday, according to Russia's state-owned TASS news agency. "We've stressed many a time there are no real facts behind the acts of shaking the air by Brussels officials."

NATO's warning follows similar statements issued in the past few days by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the White House and Ukrainian authorities, who say pro-Russian separatists appear on the verge of a new offensive that threatens communities between the Russian border and Ukraine's Crimea region, which Russia annexed in February.

"We do not have a good picture at this time of how many. We agree that there are multiple columns that we have seen," Breedlove said.

The OSCE said Tuesday that its observers saw a convoy of 43 unmarked green military trucks, with tarpaulin covers, moving toward the center of the separatist-held city of Donetsk. Five of the trucks were towing 120mm howitzer artillery pieces, and another five were towing partly-covered multi-launch rocket systems, the OSCE reported.

Ukraine's Border Guard Services reported Tuesday that more than 100 Russian armored vehicles crossed the border Monday into separatist-held territory of Ukraine, joining about 400 vehicles already in the area, according to The Interpreter, an online publication that translates Russian and Ukrainian media.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned this week that the resort and industrial town of Berdyansk, on the Sea of Azov, is in particular danger. President Obama's National Security Council issued a similar warning Sunday.

"Any attempts to seize more territory in east Ukraine would violate the cease-fire agreement," the White House said in a statement referring to the deal signed Sept. 5 in Minsk, Belarus, by the separatist leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Poroshenko.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Tuesday that while international sanctions have hurt the Russian economy, they "have yet to sufficiently affect Russia's calculus as it relates to Ukraine."

"We've seen the continued provision of support to the separatists, including heavy weapons that are in complete violation of the spirit of the Minsk agreement," Rhodes said.

If Russia continues "escalating the situation" it will experience continued economic disruption from existing sanctions, he said.

Despite the cease-fire, sporadic fighting has continued, killing about 400 people since the agreement was signed, according to Ukrainian authorities.

On Wednesday, Roman Sokolov, the deputy chief of the Mariupol Defense Headquarters, reported that one border guard was wounded in a small arms attack on a checkpoint northwest of Mariupol, from territory considered under government control, according to the Interpreter.

And on Tuesday, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council reported that three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in an attack near Beryozovoye, west of the highway linking Donetsk and Mariupol.

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