Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Fresh Troop Build-Up Along Border
Kyiv/Moscow (Alliance News) – Ukraine on Thursday accused Russia of continuing the latest military build-up along the border of the two countries.
Some 60 armoured vehicles, including 50 T-64 tanks, were moved by train to a town close to the border in Russia’s southern Rostov region, the Security Council in Kyiv said.
The vehicles were not marked with national symbols, council spokesman Andriy Lysenko added.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this week that Russian troops were again moving closer to the Ukraine border.
Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of covertly supporting the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine by training and equipping them and by sending volunteers and special forces across the border.
Russia denies those accusations.
The situation in the conflict zone remained tense on Thursday. Authorities in Donetsk said that artillery fire could be widely heard throughout the city.
The separatists said later that Ukrainian forces had launched a major attack at Donetsk airport, Interfax reported. The Ukrainian military denied the claim, saying that it was observing the ceasefire.
Fighting in Donetsk, which has a peacetime population of more than one million, has continued despite a ceasefire agreed in September. It is centred on the airport, which is being stubbornly defended by Ukrainian government troops.
On Wednesday, two children were killed when a grenade hit a school pitch close to the airport where they were playing football. Both sides blamed each other for the incident.
The security situation deteriorated after the separatists held leadership elections on Sunday, which were rejected by Ukraine, the EU and the US.
More than 3,600 people have been killed since the violent conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces began in April.
Meanwhile, a group of Dutch experts continued to search the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 east of Donetsk.
The six experts were accompanied by members of the observer mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Russian news agencies reported.
All 298 people on board, 196 of them Dutch, were killed when the Boeing 777, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17.
So far, the remains of 289 victims have been identified.
An official Dutch investigation found that the plane was probably hit by a surface-to-air missile but named no culprit. Ukraine and separatist rebels have blamed each other for the incident.
The Russian currency on Thursday slid to new lows, trading at 46 roubles against the dollar and above 56 roubles against the euro.
The slide came one day after Russia’s Central Bank announced that it is limiting interventions on the currency market to 350 million dollars per day.
The rouble has lost about a third of its value against the dollar this year. Analysts say that the devaluation is mainly caused by the falling oil price.
Copyright dpa
