The Russian Ministry of Defense is preparing for a long-term operation near the borders with Ukraine
Moscow - Kyiv, June 20 (Navigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Russian troops are again converging on the Ukrainian border. The military plans to create barriers between the civilian population of Donbass and the Ukrainian army and issue an ultimatum for a ceasefire, the Russian Ministry of Defense told RBC.
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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday that there was a new concentration of Russian troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border. “With at least several thousand additional Russian troops deployed [to the Ukrainian border], it appears that Russia is leaving open the possibility of further intervention in Ukraine,” news agencies quote Rasmussen.
“Most of the Russian troops were withdrawn from the border with Ukraine in early June, and about 1000 people remained there. In recent days, we have seen that several formations of approximately 5 thousand people are again moving near the Ukrainian border,” NATO military officer Jay Janson said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
RBC sources in the General Staff reported the return of a significant number of troops the day before. On Thursday, RBC's source in the Ministry of Defense clarified that this time not only army units and military equipment are being drawn to the border, but also gas stations, medical battalions, and engineering and construction equipment, which indicates the long-term plans for deploying military personnel in the field.
The interlocutor at the Ministry of Defense also confirmed the information previously reported to RBC by military experts about the development of scenarios for the Russian group to enter the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to create so-called sanitary corridors in the Donbass. “Indeed, such a possibility is being explored: within XNUMX hours after receiving the order, the military must create barriers between the civilian population and the Ukrainian army and issue an ultimatum to the other side on the need for a ceasefire. The use of force is possible only in the event of fire in our direction,” the military man specified.
“Vladimir Putin has long decided that he will not send troops into Ukraine, but they are starting to put pressure on him from within because of the sentiments that he aroused by the annexation of Crimea, so he has to react somehow,” RBC commented on the situation on the border Deputy Director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis Alexander Khramchikhin. Troops on the border, according to the expert, are an element of pressure on Ukraine.
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