The Russian intelligence agency FSB on Wednesday said one of its officers and an army soldier were killed over the weekend in two separate incidents while fending off what Moscow described as a series of attacks by Ukrainian “saboteurs”.
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Ukraine has another Crimean medal contender in rhythmic gymnastics, where Anna Rizatdinova must face the Russian gold medal favorites.
“This is fake information”, said a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, while the Defense Ministry charged that the FSB was attempting to justify “acts of aggression” against Ukraine.
Ukraine has called the accusations false and says they look like a pretext for Russian Federation to escalate hostilities.
Poroshenko also refuted claims aired on Russian state television that Ukraine attacked “critically important infrastructure” in Armyansk, a town near the Ukraine border with Crimea.
Two residents living on the Russian-controlled side of the Crimea-Ukraine frontier told AFP there had been an unexplained build-up of Russian military hardware in the area over the past few weeks.
The Ministry urged the worldwide community to pressure Russian Federation to “prevent a new round of aggression against Ukraine and the ultimate disruption of the Minsk peace process by the Kremlin”.
Tensions ratcheted up Thursday around the Russian-annexed province of Crimea, as Ukraine’s president ordered the reinforcement of nearby military installations and Crimea’s pro-Moscow leader accused the United States of meddling in the dispute.
“These fantasies are but an excuse to come up with more threats of military [action] against Ukraine”, he said in a statement issued by his office.
“We would never ever use terror to de-occupy Crimea”, he added.
Crimea’s annexation was followed by bloody fighting in the east of the country between the Ukrainian army and separatists supported by Russian Federation. Crimea itself has previously been unaffected by the violence in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov (Andriy Hovorov) competes in a semifinal of the men’s 50-meter freestyle during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Putin said a mooted meeting with Poroshenko and mediators German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande at next month’s G20 summit in China was now “senseless”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also met security chiefs to discuss “additional measures for ensuring security for citizens and essential infrastructure in Crimea“, the Kremlin said. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said it was closely monitoring the heightened tensions, and both it and the USA said they had seen no evidence corroborating Russia’s allegations.
Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter on August 11 that “Russia has a record of frequently levying false accusations at Ukraine to deflect attention from its own illegal actions”.
Russian Federation annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 following a hastily called referendum, a move that sparked fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine.
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“We are extremely concerned about the increased tension near the administrative boundary between Crimea and Ukraine”, Elizabeth Trudeau, a State Department spokeswoman, said on Thursday.
