Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Further Military Build-Up In East
Moscow/Kyiv (Alliance News) – An alleged Russian military presence on Ukrainian territory drew renewed condemnation Monday as officials in Kyiv reported an ever-growing contingent of forces from Moscow in separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine.
“Significant numbers of armoured vehicles and personnel continue to arrive in the districts controlled by militants,” Ukrainian National Security Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kyiv.
He said that Russian and separatist troops are being concentrated along the demarcation line separating them from government troops.
Separatists in the Donbass region have said they would like to secede from Ukraine and eventually join Russia. The recent military build-up began after the restive regions held elections on November 2, which Kyiv and the West rejected as illegal.
Lysenko said Ukraine spotted some 50 trucks on Saturday towing artillery howitzers from Russia toward the Ukrainian city of Snizhne, east of Donetsk.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has said its observers saw a similar convoy Saturday in the same region of more than 40 unmarked trucks, including 19 towing howitzers.
It said the lorries “contained personnel in dark green uniforms without insignia.” The observers spotted another convoy of nine unmarked tanks Saturday in southern Donetsk.
The OSCE said it observed two more convoys Sunday east of Donetsk, each with 17 unmarked trucks, many of which were towing artillery systems. The OSCE did not say where the convoys might have come from.
Lysenko said Sunday that Ukraine had no doubt that the columns were from Russia.
Separatist leaders denied Russian involvement, saying the armour and heavy weapons were their own.
Russia vehemently denies that any of its troops are fighting in Ukraine.
Violence continues in the region despite a ceasefire brokered in early September in Minsk. Lysenko said Monday that two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and five injured during the last 24 hours.
Citing the OSCE reports, the US State Department said that the “costs to Russia will rise” if Moscow continues to violate the agreement.
“There are no excuses for these ongoing and continuous blatant violations of the Minsk protocol by Russia and its proxies,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington.
“If Russia is truly committed to Minsk and peace in Ukraine, it will stop fueling the fire with new weapons and support for separatists,” she said.
She called for the withdrawal of all Russian military personnel and equipment from Ukraine and said Russia should call on its proxies to stop cease-fire violations, release hostages and close the international border.
On Monday, the Netherlands held a national commemoration of the victims of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which crashed July 17 in eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak during a meeting in Beijing that searching the crash site had become too dangerous because Ukrainian government troops were shelling the area.
Ukraine has blamed the Russia-backed separatists for the incident, in which all 298 people aboard were killed. Russia has said Ukraine is to blame because it is responsible for its own airspace.
Copyright dpa
