MOSCOW (AFP) — The Russian army stated Monday that it had killed 5 “saboteurs” who crossed into Russia from Ukraine, the newest declare fueling tensions alongside Moscow’s border with Ukraine.
The report comes as Kyiv and Washington have accused Russia of plotting “false flag” operations to faux Ukrainian assaults in an effort to function a pretext for an all-out assault.
Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba denied claims of a cross-border assault in addition to a string of different claims issued by Russian officers all through a tense day that has intensified fears that the Kremlin is paving the way in which for an invasion of Ukraine.
Russian officers had earlier additionally stated {that a} Ukrainian shell had destroyed a border facility utilized by Russia’s Federal Safety Service (FSB).
“No, Ukraine did NOT: assault Donetsk or Luhansk, ship saboteurs or APCs [armored personnel carriers] over the Russian border, shell Russian territory, shell Russian border crossing, conduct acts of sabotage,” Kuleba stated in an English-language tweet.
“Ukraine additionally does NOT plan any such actions. Russia, cease your fake-producing manufacturing facility now,” he wrote.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a gathering with members of Russian paralympic groups forward of Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Video games through a teleconference name, in Moscow, on February 21, 2022. (Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Monday that he not felt {that a} key 2015 plan agreed with France, Germany and Kyiv would have the ability to resolve Ukraine’s separatist battle.
“We perceive that there aren’t any prospects” for the implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace accords, agreed within the capital of Belarus to finish preventing between Ukraine’s military and pro-Moscow rebels within the east of the nation, Putin advised his safety council.
Putin additionally warned that Western powers have been utilizing Moscow’s feud with Ukraine to threaten Russia’s personal safety.
“The usage of Ukraine as an instrument of confrontation with our nation poses a critical, very large menace to us,” Putin stated throughout a rigorously stage-managed assembly of Russia’s nationwide safety council, including that Moscow’s precedence was “not confrontation, however safety.”
Ukraine and Washington, nonetheless, now anticipate confrontation.
US Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan advised NBC News {that a} Russian invasion of its neighbor could be an “extraordinarily violent” operation adopted by a brutal occupation.
US Nationwide Safety Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks through the each day White Home press briefing on February 11, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/ Getty Photographs through AFP)
“It will likely be a struggle waged by Russia on the Ukrainian individuals to repress them, to crush them, to hurt them,” the White Home official stated.
Mounting concern over an invasion rapidly overshadowed a French diplomatic initiative, backed by Germany, to push for a summit between Putin and Biden.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated: “It’s untimely to speak about any particular plans for organizing any type of summits,” including that no “concrete plans” had been put in place.
A French presidential official later referred to as on Putin to make a fast resolution on the assembly, calling the scenario “very harmful.”
“It’s at the moment attainable to maneuver in direction of a summit… it’s as much as President Putin to make his alternative,” the supply stated.
Ukrainian Protection Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated there was no signal of Russian forces withdrawing from the border and that Moscow-backed rebels proceed to shell Ukrainian positions.
A Ukrainian border guard patrols the border with Russia within the Kharkiv area of Ukraine, on February 2, 2022. (AP Photograph/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Russia annexed the Ukrainian area of Crimea in 2014 and Moscow-backed separatists maintain an enclave within the jap districts of Luhansk and Donetsk.
In current weeks, based on US intelligence, Moscow has massed an invasion pressure of troops, tanks, missile batteries and warships round Ukraine’s borders in Belarus, Russia, Crimea and the Black Sea.
Biden has stated that US intelligence believes that Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and that commanders are readying items to assault inside days.
