Putin said it would be “pointless” to hold another round of peace talks under the so-called “Normandy Format”, because Ukrainian leaders are not interested in searching for compromises.
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Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Wednesday of using terrorist tactics to try to provoke a new conflict and destabilise annexed Crimea after Russian Federation said it had thwarted two armed Ukrainian attempts to get saboteurs into the contested peninsula.
The Federal Security Service, known under its Russian acronym FSB, said in Wednesday’s statement that its officer was killed over the weekend near Armyansk within a few kilometers (miles) of the de-facto border between Crimea and Ukraine when FSB officers engaged in a gun battle with a group of “saboteurs” from Ukraine. Kiev has dismissed the allegations.
“The aim of this subversive activity and terrorist acts was to destabilise the socio-political situation in the region ahead of preparations and the holding of elections”.
The accusations came after several days of reports of border closures and heightened military presence from Russian-controlled towns south of the administrative boundary between Crimea and Ukraine.
The security agency said that in the August 6-7 raids, several people were detained, including a Ukrainian military intelligence officer, and a cache of explosives was discovered.
“This is fake information”, the spokesman said.
“We don’t want to be distracted from the real issue here, which is not only Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea, but their continued aggression in eastern Ukraine”, she said. “We certainly won’t let such things pass by”, Putin said.
Russian Federation annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in an operation that triggered USA and European Union sanctions. Russian Federation has been building up its forces in Crimea in recent months.
“From the Russian side there were losses – two servicemen killed. Twenty improvised explosive devices containing more than 40 kilograms of TNT equivalent, ammunition, fuses, antipersonnel and magnetic bombs, grenades and the Ukrainian armed forces’ standard special weapons were found at the scene”.
In its statement, the FSB – which controls Russia’s border guards – said it had “foiled terrorist attacks on the territory of Crimea prepared by the intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry”.
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“The attempts to break through were accompanied by massive covering fire from the neighboring state and from Ukrainian armored vehicles”.
