Over 1,000 Russian troops cross Ukrainian border

Russian tanks and troops fired their way into eastern Ukraine on Thursday and seized a strategic gateway town on the road to the heavily militarized Crimean peninsula.

Defense officials in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said two armored Russian columns crossed the border into southern Ukraine and rolled over the town of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov, opening a new front in the 5-month-old separatist battle.

A NATO military officer said that "well over 1,000" Russian troops were now operating inside Ukraine on Thursday. There are also reports that Finland had accused Russia of violating its airspace for the third time in less than a week.

These events have sparked further calls for sanctions from the European Union and Russian stocks as well as the ruble have experienced a sharp drop as the threat of war and economic sanctions looms closer.

The United Nations Security Council will be holding an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine.