The U.S. Defense Department, with White House clearance, has released images that it said proves Russian military forces have been firing missiles and self-propelled artillery from Russian territory across the border into the location of Ukrainian government forces.

The grainy photos were said to have been taken on Wednesday and on Saturday, and indicates firing from multiple rocket launchers from inside Russia. The photos, the Pentagon said, also showed the location of targets those missiles and artillery fire hit in Ukraine.

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Earlier, Russia's foreign ministry accused the Obama administration of lying and embarking on a "unrelenting campaign of slander" against Russia, and criticized a Pentagon statement about active Russian support for separatist rebels in Ukraine as based on fabricated social media evidence.

The newly released images came from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and were said to have been taken from a high altitude, while renewed fighting was going on between rebels and the Ukrainian military around the area near the MH17 crash site.

Parts of the photos in a four-page release were labelled as showing blast marks from where the rockets were launched, and the craters where they landed. The labels also indicate a row of Russian heavy weapons facing west and said to be targeting the location of a Ukrainian military unit near Donetsk.

The release also showed before-and-after comparisons of the area around the location of a Ukraine military unit, and what it looked like after artillery shells and rockets impacted the location.

The rocket launchers and artillery were fired between July 21 and July 26, according to the Pentagon.

Washington has been openly critical of Russia's involvement in the Ukraine security situation since March, when Russian forces seized Crimea and neutralized Ukrainian military units in the area.

The criticisms have reached new heights after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 which the U.S. believes could the handiwork of pro-Russian rebels operating under Russian guidance, or possibly of Russians operating from inside Ukraine.

Intelligence officials said that from satellite imagery, intercepted communications, and posting on online social media, it was a Russian-made surface -to-air missile that shot down the plane on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

Moscow continues to deny any involvement. 

TagsRussia