In response to accusations that Kyiv attempted to undermine Russia’s alleged sovereignty in Crimea, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko placed the country’s military on “high-alert level” and deployed tanks to its frontier with Crimea.
Advertisement
“If it is happened in reality, where are the proofs? Statements, pictures, photos, videos, whatever”, said Yelchenko.
Moscow made the announcement one day after it claimed to have thwarted an incursion into Russian-held Crimea by Ukrainian saboteurs in which two members of Russia’s security forces died.
“We obviously will not let such things slide by”, Putin said.
Poroshenko dismissed the accusations as “cynical and insane”.
Three Ukrainians captured during the skirmishes confessed to planning a series of explosions in the region’s resorts in a bid to sow panic and destroy the Crimean tourism industry, security sources told Russian media yesterday.
Russian state TV broadcast an apparent confession by a man named as Yevhen Panov, saying he was part of a Ukrainian defence force sent into Crimea “to carry out acts of sabotage”.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been escalating as Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Kiev of plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea and vowed to take additional measures to ensure the safety of infrastructure and citizens there.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and other top officials said the alleged attack would not go unpunished, sparking fears of an escalation in violence in Ukraine and prompting Kiev’s United States and European Union allies to call for calm. Two Russian servicemen were killed while preventing the attempt. “We call upon all those who have influence on Kiev to make sure that they do what they are supposed to do (under the Minsk agreement)”.
More than 9,500 people have been killed in the Ukrainian conflict, with more than 500,000 children affected, according to United Nations figures.
Pro-Russian separatists are fighting the Kiev government’s forces in the eastern Ukraine region despite a fragile ceasefire. Darya Polyudova was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security penal colony in December after she criticized Moscow online for its support of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service said that Russian Federation was planning “large-scale provocative actions through the contact line in Ukraine’s east and then will accuse Ukraine of not complying” with a peace plan under the 2015 Minsk accords.
Putin has 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”. His dismissal could signal a change in Russian posture regarding Crimea and Ukraine.
Advertisement
“Will Russia bring an end to it or demand new concessions?”
