Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced what he described as Ukraine’s “stupid and criminal” action and called a session of his Security Council Thursday to discuss boosting security in Crimea.
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued the order after Moscow accused his country of sending in “saboteurs” to carry out attacks in Crimea.
Russian Federation and Ukraine yesterday stepped up security around Crimea as tensions soared over accusations by Moscow that Kiev had attempted armed incursions into the disputed peninsula.
Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border guards, said he had observed an uptick in Russian military activity in northern Crimea in recent days after heavier fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s domestic security agency known by its Russian acronym FSB said in Wednesday’s statement that one of its officers was killed in a gunbattle with a group of “saboteurs” from Ukraine over the weekend.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine has claimed almost 10,000 lives, according to the United Nations.
“Crimea is part of Ukraine and it is recognized as such by the worldwide community”, Elizabeth Trudeau, US State Department spokesperson said in a press briefing.
Crimea rejoined Russian Federation after a 2014 referendum in which over 96 percent of the Crimean population voted in favor of reunification.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko on Wednesday said that Kiev would ask the UN Security Council to hold an urgent meeting if tensions continue to rise. This year’s Games have been marked by a partial ban on Russian athletes by doping authorities, which Putin said was an unfair decision made by “short-sighted politicians”.
“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.
Other motivations could include bolstering domestic support before Russia’s September 18 parliamentary elections, providing a distraction before Ukraine’s 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, or maneuvering before the US presidential elections in November, Ash said.
As soon as Russian Federation forced the last Ukrainian troops based in Crimea to leave in 2014, Moscow began setting up fortified border crossings and sending weapons to the peninsula – from cutting-edge fighter jets to the newest missile defense systems.
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”. He was seeking to urgently speak to Putin, the leaders of France and Germany, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and European Council President Donald Tusk. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said it was closely monitoring the heightened tensions, and both it and the US said they had seen no evidence corroborating Russia’s allegations.
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”.
Ukraine has placed its troops onto the “highest level of combat readiness” as it prepares for the threat of a Russian invasion.
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“Putin in his rhetoric has returned to the start of 2014”.
