Kremlin denies plans to invade Ukraine
MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Friday rebuffed allegations that a buildup of its troops near Ukraine reflects Moscow’s aggressive intentions, saying Russia needs to ensure its security in response to alleged NATO threats.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports that Moscow has intentions to invade Ukraine as a “hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions.”
“Russia doesn’t threaten anyone,” Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. “The movement of troops on our territory shouldn’t be a cause for anyone’s concern.”
Ukraine complained last week Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops not far from the two countries’ borders after conducting war games in an attempt to exert further pressure on its ex-Soviet neighbor. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has supported a separatist insurgency that broke out that year in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraine’s east. It said units of the Russian 41st army have remained in Yelnya, a town about about 160 miles north of the Ukrainian border.
The commander-inchief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Lt. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Friday that Russia has about 2,100 military personnel in the rebel-controlled areas, noting Russian military officers hold all commanding positions in the separatist forces.
Russia has cast its weight behind the separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s east that has left more than 14,000 dead. But Moscow has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Washington this week that the U.S. commitment to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity is “ironclad.”
On Friday, Blinken pointed at Russia’s previous aggressive actions against Ukraine. “From what they’ve done the past, we have real concerns about what we’re seeing in the present,” he said.
“We don’t know Russia’s intentions,” Blinken told reporters in Washington. “But we do know that we’ve seen in the past: Russia mass forces on Ukraine’s borders, claim some kind of provocation by Ukraine, and then invade. That’s what they did in 2014.”