The United States has accused Russia of sending combat forces across the border into Ukraine as it warned Moscow economic sanctions may be tightened.
Speaking at the White House, President Barack Obama said Russia has been supporting pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine "for months".
He ruled out any direct US military intervention but said Russia - which has repeatedly denied any involvement in Ukraine - would incur "more costs and consequences".
"I consider the actions that we've seen in the last week a continuation of what's been taking place for months now," Mr Obama said.
"The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia. Russia determined that it had to be a little more overt in what it had already been doing, but it's not really a shift."
Ukraine said on Friday Russia's call for separatists to open a 'humanitarian corridor' to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to withdraw clearly showed they were "led and controlled directly from the Kremlin".
Meanwhile, Washington's envoy to the United Nations hit out at Russia during an emergency session of its Security Council
US Ambassador Samantha Power said: "Russia has to stop lying and has to stop fueling this conflict.
"The mask is coming off. We see Russia's actions for what they are: a deliberate effort to support and now fight alongside illegal separatists in another sovereign country."
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Russia has stepped up its military presence in the east.
She said Russia has sent "combat forces, armoured vehicles, artillery, and surface-to-air systems" to Ukraine.
Ms Psaki also accused Russia of "playing a direct supporting role to the separatists' proxies and mercenaries".
A pro-Russian separatist seen in the eastern city of Donetsk The US and European countries have imposed tough sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in March.
Nato is due to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later today, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said an EU summit on Saturday would discuss the prospect of further sanctions.
A spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Council, Colonel Andriy Lysenko, said earlier two columns of tanks had fired at a border post, before rolling into Ukraine.
His comments followed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's claim on Thursday that Russian forces had "entered" the country.
The tanks are reported to have crossed into a southern area of the Donetsk region, where the separatists have made significant gains in recent days.
Satellite image purportedly showing a Russian military incursion A Nato official said at least 1,000 Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine with sophisticated equipment and had been in "direct contact" with Ukrainian forces, resulting in casualties.
At a crisis meeting of the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused Kiev of "waging war against its own people."
However, British Ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, listed "overwhelming" evidence to the contrary.
"It is simply not credible for Russia and its proxies in (the eastern regions of) Donetsk and Luhansk to keep claiming that these serving members of the Russian armed forces are in Ukraine by accident or on holiday," he said.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April, a month after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula after the toppling of a pro-Moscow president in Kiev.
A United Nations report this week said more than 2,200 people have been killed in the violence, not including the 298 who died when a Malaysian airliner was shot down over rebel-held territory in July.
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