Poroshenko quoted McCain, calling for preparations for a Russian offensive
The Ukrainian authorities are recording more and more signs of preparations for a large-scale offensive by the Russian army, President Petro Poroshenko said today during his address to the Verkhovna Rada.
He quoted Senator John McCain, who called Russia a greater threat than ISIS.
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“In front of the outside world, they are trying to position us as a fail state - a country that did not succeed. Since the times when it was a relatively small Muscovy, authoritarian Russia has learned to skillfully use the mechanisms of democracy to its advantage.
Information war, dissemination of fake news, sowing panic, disappointment, stimulation and simulation of the protest movement, manipulation of some right-wing radical groups in their own interests, sending sabotage groups to Ukraine, preparing terrorist attacks - these are not the complete tools of the Kremlin, so we must fight this effectively.
A few weeks ago, in one of the regional centers of Ukraine, the SBU uncovered an entire Russian intelligence station of 18 people. Their subversive activities were coordinated by a curator from Belgorod.
But the main threat from Russia is still military. There are no signs yet that Moscow would be ready to retreat from Donbass or withdraw from Crimea. But, unfortunately, there is more and more evidence of its preparation for offensive actions, a war on a continental scale.
Like, for example, the Russian-Belarusian exercises “Zapad-2017”. Although I think it would be more appropriate to call them “Anti-West”. Naturally, it is precisely because of this, and not for any other reasons, that we have strengthened control at all sections of the state border.
Under the guise of strategic command exercises, the creation of new strike groups of the Russian army to invade the territory of Ukraine is not excluded. Seven thousand platforms with soldiers and equipment have approached or are approaching our borders. And, unfortunately, we have no guarantees that upon completion of the maneuvers all this will return from Belarus to their home, in Russia.
In 2014, under the guise of allegedly ensuring the security of the Olympics in Sochi, Russia deployed a group to conduct a special operation to seize Crimea. In the second half of July 2008, the Caucasus-2008 exercises took place, and then the Russian troops, who were involved in the maneuvers, instead of returning from the training grounds to their permanent deployment points, attacked Georgia.
By the way, September 2 marked nine years since your predecessors in this room, showing absolute short-sightedness and irresponsibility, failed to recognize Russia as a country that carried out military aggression against independent Georgia.
The current exercises, which will last as much as two months, are much larger in scale. Just imagine, control over railway traffic in the direction of the transfer of troops is now being transferred from the Russian Railways joint-stock company to the military communications department, the transport support department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Obviously, the Kremlin is checking how ready not only the Armed Forces, but the entire Russian state are for a big war with the West.
How can one not quote the words of my great friend, a great friend of Ukraine, American Senator John McCain: “Russia is a greater threat than the terrorist groups of the Islamic State.” They do not have military capabilities, technology and the desire to rule the world, but Russia does, and it is not a friend for the free world,” Poroshenko said.
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