Russian Federation shut down the internet in the annexed territory of Crimea nearly entirely just days before Moscow announced that it had foiled an alleged terror attack that Ukraine had plotted in the region, a research firm has said.
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Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are continuing to rise after an incident was reported over the weekend in which an attempted group of infiltrators from Ukraine entered Crimea, killing a Russian soldier and a member of their FSB security service.
The Security Council has discussed Ukraine dozens of times since Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2014, but has been deadlocked on the topic as Moscow is one of the body’s five veto powers. 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.
The belligerent posture heightened worries in Ukraine that Russia may plan to ramp up fighting in a war between Kiev and pro-Russian eastern separatists that had been de-escalated by a shaky peace process.
The United States called for the avoidance of any actions that would escalate the situation in Crimea, Trudeau said.
Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border guards, said Russian Federation had massed troops on Ukraine’s border with Crimea in recent days.
Ukrainian U.N. Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko warned that Russian Federation had amassed more than 40,000 troops in the region and said the build-up could reflect “very bad intentions”.
The next meeting in the Normandy 4 format, involving Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine, was due to take place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 4-5.
In an editorial, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti said escalation was a proven Kremlin tactic ahead of negotiations.
The 2015 peace agreement for eastern Ukraine signed in Minsk has helped reduce fighting in eastern Ukraine, but peaceful settlement has floundered.
The European Union and the United States have tied the success of talks under the Minsk process to any possible decision to lift financial sanctions imposed on Russian Federation over the Ukraine crisis.
“We believe now is the time to reduce the tensions, reduce the rhetoric and get back to talks”, the spokesperson said.
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“We are extremely concerned about the increased tension near the administrative boundary between Crimea and Ukraine”, said a State Department spokeswoman, Elizabeth Trudeau. Civilian casualties from shelling, mines and booby traps in eastern Ukraine are at their highest in a year, the United Nations’ human rights chief has said.
