Russian-trained rebels set for major counter-attack

DONETSK, Ukraine, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Ukrainian rebels are receiving new military equipment and troops trained in Russia, and will launch a major counteroffensive against government forces, a separatist leader said in a video released on Saturday.

The four-month conflict in eastern Ukraine has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels - an intention Moscow denies.

Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said the rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters who he said had spent four months training in Russia.

“They are joining at the most crucial moment,” he said in a video recorded on Friday. He did not specify where the vehi- cles would come from.

Moscow has come under heavy Western sanctions over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and accusations it is supporting separatists in east Ukraine with troops and funds. Russia denies the accusations.

Zakharchenko's comments came a day after Ukraine said it partially destroyed an armoured column that had crossed the border from Russia. The report triggered a sell- off in global stocks, with markets fearful it could escalate the conflict into an open confrontation between Russia and Western-backed Ukraine.

But Moscow made no threat of retaliation, instead saying it was a “fantasy” that its armoured vehicles had entered Ukraine. In Washington, the White House said it could not confirm that Russian vehicles had been attacked on Ukrainian soil.

The rebels, who have ceded ground to government forces in the past weeks, have been promising a counter- offensive for several days but have yet to launch one.