Leader won’t rule out ‘fullscale Russian invasion’
KYIV • Ukraine isn’t ruling out a full-scale Russian invasion and may institute a military draft if the situation with its neighbour worsens, President Petro Poroshenko said after three soldiers were killed in the worst spate of shelling by pro-Moscow separatists in a year.
The confrontation between Ukrainian forces and the rebels in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region has worsened, Poroshenko said in the western city of Brody on Thursday. His comments come a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the government in Kyiv of engaging in “terror” tactics in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Putin vowed to respond with “serious measures.”
“The probability of escalation and conflict remains very significant,” Poroshenko said in a televised speech. “We don’t rule out full-scale Russian invasion.”
Three troops were killed and six wounded in eastern Ukraine in the most recent day of fighting.
Fighting between government forces and separatists rebels has intensified despite a 2015 truce.
More than 9,500 people have been killed in the conflict so far.
In the past 24 hours, separatists have shelled government positions twice as much as the day before, said Olexander Motuzyanyk, the Ukrainian presidential envoy for the operation in the east.
Poroshenko warned of a further flare-up of hostilities in the east and said that martial law could be imposed if the fighting gets worse.
“In case the situation in the east and in Crimea flares up, we will have to introduce martial law and declare a mobilization,” Poroshenko said.
Separatist officials in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk also reported heavy shelling of their positions in Donetsk and Horlivka Wednesday night, where the shelling cut electricity supply to hundreds of homes and a coal mine.
The Ukrainian government, which says Russia is funnelling troops, cash and weapons to the separatists, has rejected Putin’s accusations over Crimea and said its neighbour may use them as a pretext to mass more troops in the disputed Black Sea peninsula.
Ukraine has enough forces along its eastern front line and near the border with the territory to resist a possible offensive, military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Thursday.
Putin may travel to Crimea on Friday to talk with local officials and visit a summer camp for children, Russian media group RBC reported on its website on Tuesday.