Ukraine's president calls on country to resist panic in wake of Russian forces' entry

8/28/2014

Local residents look at a burned car, hit by shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. The Obama administration accused Russia on Wednesday of orchestrating a new military campaign in Ukraine, helping rebel forces expand their fight in the country's east and sending tanks, rocket launchers and armored vehicles toward communities elsewhere. (AP Photo/Mstislav Chernov)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is calling on the country to resist giving into panic in the wake of Russian forces entering the country.

Poroshenko called an urgent session of the national security council on Thursday. Security officials said two columns of tanks entered the country’s southeast earlier in the day.

“Destabilization of the situation and panic, this is as much of a weapon of the enemy as tanks,” Poroshenko told the security council, according to the Interfax news agency.