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In an emergency meeting at the United Nations Security Council yesterday the US asserted that Russia has “outright lied” about its presence in the Ukraine. In tandem, NATO released satellite imagery of what it says are Russian troops around the Eastern part of Ukraine.

NATO also claims that more than 1,000 armed Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine. Ukraine’s government has bolstered those claims saying that Russian forces have also captured the southeastern town of Novoazovsk.

Fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels has killed more than 2,100 people in the last 4 months alone. In recent weeks Ukrainian forces said they were enjoying some success at defeating the separatists and taking back cities before the new apparent push by Russia. Ukraine says it has captured ten Russian paratroopers on Ukrainian territory this week. Russia flatly denies it is involved.

High-level meetings in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev this week concluded with a decision to mandate army conscription.

GUEST: Fred Weir, Moscow-based correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and co-author of Revolution from Above: Russia’s Path from Gorbachev to Putin