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support for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and Euro-Atlantic aspirations." support for Ukraine's "reorientation," pledging "continued U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated U.S. Those fears deepened when the former Soviet Baltic states joined NATO, along with several ex-members of the Warsaw Pact, such as Romania and Poland. Moscow's strategy is aimed at deterring Ukraine's flirtation with closer ties to NATO and the European Union, a pivot from east to west that would stoke historic Russian fears of encirclement. "True sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia," he wrote. In a long article in July, Putin said "the formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressive towards Russia, is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us." Russian rhetoric towards Ukraine has hardened in recent months.īoth President Vladimir Putin and his predecessor, Dmitri Medvedev, have penned essays describing Ukraine as a vassal of the West - even going so far as to suggest it is not a real country. Under these circumstances, Moscow will be confronted with a serious choice."
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Popular Russian TV host Vladimir Soloviev went further, saying Ukraine was provoking the separatist-held "Republics" into taking "retaliatory measures, which means a major war. "We observe attempts to carry out provocations, elicit some reaction from the militia and drag Russia into some kind of combat action," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state television Monday. One of those drones struck a separatist position last week. Russia has responded swiftly to Ukraine's use of Turkish-made combat drones for the first time in the conflict.
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Russian units gathered near the border last spring - setting off alarm bells in western capitals - but eventually returned to base.īut hopes that the frozen conflict might be defused through negotiations sponsored by European governments and the U.S. Heightened tensions have, in the past, come to nought.
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We've been here before - several times - since the separatists, with Russian backing, entered eastern Ukraine in 2014. It's not 'nothing happening' and it doesn't mean that there will be an offensive op tomorrow," says Michael Kofman, a fellow at the Wilson Center who researches Russia's military. "At the moment it is a developing situation. Observers say Russia's actions are worth keeping a close eye on. "Russia has never threatened anyone, is not threatening, and does not pose a danger to anyone," he insisted. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "The movement of our military equipment or army units across the territory of the Russian Federation is exclusively our business. Any escalatory or aggressive actions would be of great concern to the United Sates." was watching closely: "I can't speak for Russian intentions, but we are certainly monitoring the region closely, as we always do. Ukraine's Defence Ministry added that Russia had established a practice of "transferring and accumulating military units for the purpose of maintaining tension in the region and political pressure on neighbouring countries."
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On Tuesday, the Defence Ministry said an estimated 90,000 Russian troops were located "near the border and in the temporarily occupied territories" as well as in the Black Sea. Satellite imagery has shown Russian hardware - including self-propelled guns, battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles - on the move at a training ground roughly 186 miles (300km) from the border.īut Ukraine's Defence Ministry said Monday it had recorded no "additional transfer of Russian units, weapons and military equipment to the state border of Ukraine." Defense Department spokesman Admiral John Kirby said the Pentagon was "aware of public reports of unusual Russian military activity near Ukraine." The front lines of the conflict - a standoff stretching hundreds of kilometres from northern Ukraine to the Sea of Azov - have barely moved in five years. And Ukrainian forces have deployed combat drones along the battle lines that separate them from pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region. Reports that the Russians are moving military hardware some 250 kilometres from the border have raised eyebrows in Washington. Once more, tensions are rising in Ukraine.