Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had found a group of infiltrators in Crimea, near the Ukrainian border.
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Poroshenko rejected the claims as “fantasy” and “a provocation”.
Ukraine’s president has ordered the army to be on combat alert on the country’s de-facto border with Crimea and on the front line in eastern Ukraine following Moscow’s accusations that Ukraine sent in “saboteurs” to carry out attacks in Crimea.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Kiev had “switched to terror tactics instead of searching for a peaceful settlement” to its conflict with Moscow, which after seizing Crimea fomented a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has killed some 10,000 people and displaced two million.
Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko also said Kiev would request the Security Council hold an urgent meeting if tensions continue to rise.
It said two Russian servicemen were killed in ensuing clashes.
A network of agents from Ukraines chief intelligence directorate has been uncovered in Crimea, according to the FSB.
Since the weekend, mobile phone footage filmed by civilians in Crimea and posted online has shown large military convoys arriving from Russian Federation and moving across the peninsula.
“The main political question now is what is the future of the Minsk process”, the paper wrote, referring to the peace deal hammered out in the Belarussian capital in February 2015.
The OSCE statement also stressed the EU’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The move sparked Russia-backed separatists to begin fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, where deadly battles are still ongoing.
At the same time, Russia dramatically increased security checks on traffic between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine, and officials urged Russian holidaymakers not to use the ferry crossing to the peninsula because of huge delays.
But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko refuted the claims, calling them “insane” and suggesting Russia’s aim was more military threats against its neighbor.
Despite the military buildup, hardly any disturbances or let alone cross-border shootings have been reported in Crimea since the annexation. “While America is right now not very operational because it’s in a midst of a divisive election campaign, Europe is also divided – on Brexit, on refugees, on sanctions against Russian Federation”. In 2014, Moscow rejected recognizing the Ukrainian opposition’s interim government, which came in after Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled to Russian Federation, saying instead that was a coup.
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“The main issue is what is going to happen to the Minsk talks – whether Russian Federation will stop them or start asking for more concessions”, respected daily Vedomosti said in an editorial Thursday.
