“Russian forces gathering on the border with eastern Ukraine may be poised to invade, the White House warned on Sunday, as the government in Kiev said that the prospect of war with Moscow was continuing to grow after the annexation of Crimea.
Speaking after Nato’s top commander in Europe voiced alarm about the size and preparedness of the Russian troop buildup, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Tony Blinken, said President Vladimir Putin may indeed be readying further action.
“It’s deeply concerning to see the Russian troop buildup on the border,” Blinken told CNN. “It creates the potential for incidents, for instability. It’s likely that what they’re trying to do is intimidate the Ukrainians. It’s possible that they’re preparing to move in.”
Thousands of Russian troops held a military exercise near the border even before Putin last week formally annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimea region following a referendum – condemned as illegal by western governments – that endorsed unification with Russia.
General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s supreme allied commander in Europe, said earlier on Sunday that the Russian military force gathered near the Ukrainian border was “very, very sizeable and very, very ready” and could even pose a threat to Moldova, on the other side of the country.
Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, said the chances of all-out war between his government and Moscow “are growing”, adding: “The situation is becoming even more explosive than it was a week ago.”
Deshchytsia told ABC News: “We are ready to respond. The Ukraine government is trying to use all the peaceful diplomatic means … to stop Russians, but the people are also ready to defend their homeland.
“At this moment, when Russian troops would be invading the eastern region,” Deshchytsia went on, “it would be difficult for us to ask people who live there not to respond on this military invasion”.
Russian forces in the Crimean city of Belbek on Saturday aggressively seized a military base that was one of the last strongholds of the Ukrainian military in the region. Moscow, meanwhile, allowed civilian observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to begin monitoring elsewhere in Ukraine….”
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