Russia ready to attack: Ukraine
KYIV/MOSCOW/WASHINGTON Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are ready to attack Ukraine at any time, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council chief Andriy Parubiy warned on Sunday.
“The aim of Putin is not Crimea, but all of Ukraine… His troops massed at the border are ready to attack at any moment,” Parubiy told thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Kyiv.
Russia’s deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov denied on Sunday it was massing troops on the Ukrainian border, saying it was observing international agreements.
“The Russian defence ministry is observing all the international agreements on limiting the numbers of troops in regions bordering Ukraine,” Antonov told journalists, cited by the Interfax news agency. “Russia’s armed forces are not carrying out any unannounced military activity that could threaten the security of neighbouring states,” Antonov added. Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council chief Andriy Parubiy warned Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to attack Ukraine with “troops massed at the border.”
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has discussed Russian troop activities on the Ukraine border with US and Ukrainian counterparts Chuck Hagel and Igor Tenyukh, Antonov said.
“Sergei Shoigu absolutely clearly and unambiguously informed all those he talked to about the real position on the Russian-Ukrainian border and the lack of any intentions to concentrate forces there.”
“Shoigu called on the US defence secretary to objectively assess the state of military readiness of the Russian armed forces in the regions bordering Ukraine and not to blow up the situation,” Antonov said.
He said seven groups of international inspectors visited regions adjoining the Ukrainian border over the last month, adding: “We have nothing to hide there.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia said in an interview broadcast on US television on Sunday that the chances of war between his country and Russia were growing.
“They are growing, I would say,” he told ABC’s “This Week” political talk show. “We don’t know what Putin has in his mind and what would be his decision. That’s why this situation is becoming even more explosive than it used to be a week ago.” Kyiv braced for a unity rally on Sunday after elite Russian forces stormed one of Ukraine’s last Crimean bases in a march that has defied both sanctions and global isolation.
Saturday’s takeover involving machinegun fire into the air and stun grenades provided the most spectacular show of force since the Kremlin sent troops into the heavily Russified peninsula three weeks ago before sealing its absorbtion on Friday.
It came as the chill in East-West relations intensified with a charge by Germany — a nation whose friendship Russian President Vladimir Putin had nurtured — of a Kremlin attempt to “splinter” Europe along Cold War-era lines.
Europe’s most explosive security crisis in decades will now dominate a nuclear security summit that kicks off in The Hague on Monday and will include what may prove the most difficult meeting to date between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.