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“We are concerned about the growing tensions and express our concern that one way or another, the Ukrainian side may take provocative actions leading to war. Of course, I really wouldn’t want to see that,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian media, citing Interfax.
In response to the question about Russia’s involvement in the Donbass attacks in the war, a Kremlin spokesman said: “I mean the civil war that has already taken place there.” Knowing that what is called “civil war” in Russia is called “Russian military aggression against Ukraine” in the West, such statements by Peskov can be seen as a renewal of hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Khomchak, announced that Russia had deployed 4,000 additional troops to its eastern border. soldiers. These are tactical groups that, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, are in military preparation. The transfer of Russian military equipment is also reported in the Ukrainian media.
In March, representatives of the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics accused Kiev of violating ceasefire agreements, Freedom Radio reports. However, on March 26, four Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two more wounded after an artillery fire near the town of Shum. Ukraine and Russian-backed smugglers blame each other for the escalation of the conflict. Boris Gryzlov, a spokesman for the Russian contact group, accused Ukraine of shooting a 71-year-old Donbass resident in a sniper.
Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky sent the Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff in his place and said that he will soon discuss the situation with members of the Normandy Quartet (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France).
The Ukrainian president described the Russian forces that rose up at the border as “shooting.” According to him, the constant display of muscles in the guise of military exercises on the border is a traditional Russian occupation. “In this way, it seeks to create a climate of threat and, at the same time, pressure in the ceasefire negotiations,” he said.
“The Defense and Foreign Ministries of Ukraine continue to announce today the large concentration of Russian forces in occupied Crimea, as well as near the Donbass region. There are fears of an escalation. If the situation in Ukraine is sometimes mistakenly called a “frozen conflict” is one of the many examples that the term does not correspond to reality, “writes Linas Kojala, director of the Center for Eastern European Studies, on her Facebook account.
Picture of a HUGE #Russia| n Army fuel convoy in #Crimea. The photo was first released yesterday. pic.twitter.com/t5E8nc7MjC
– marqs (@MarQs__) April 1, 2021
The war in Donbass has been going on for 7 years
The military conflict in Donbass began in the spring of 2014 after Russia annexed the Ukrainian-owned Crimean peninsula. Riots have also broken out in the Donbass region, organized by Russian troops. Russia is supplying weapons to so-called separatists, and soldiers from private military companies who obeyed the Kremlin’s instructions are believed to have participated in the 2014-2016 war against Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the war, 13 thousand people have died in Ukraine. people, according to a UN report. In 2015, the Minsk dispute settlement agreement was concluded. However, it was never actually fulfilled.
Ukraine and Western countries accuse Russia of being directly involved in the military conflict in Donbass, including the use of military equipment. The Kremlin denies the accusations, but officially states that “Russia will not leave Donbass to chance.”
The Donbass crisis worries the West
Last week, the US military leadership in Europe changed its previous assessment of the situation in eastern Ukraine from a “possible crisis” to a “potentially imminent crisis.” The New York Times states that this is the highest possible threat level. In this way, the Pentagon reacted to the appearance of additional Russian forces on the border with Ukraine.
The Americans initially thought that the Russian military might invade the border region after the March 23 exercise, but that did not happen.
Recently, artillery and machine gun fire in the Donetsk region has been going on for an unusually long time, all day. There are other signs of growing tensions: in recent weeks, representatives of European countries monitoring the situation in the crisis-affected region have identified the emergence of new Russian weapons in the DLR and LLR.
“It just came to our notice then. But the Kremlin is testing the new administration,” the former UN HICG commander of the US military in Europe was quoted as saying by UNIAN.
According to him, Russia has a “zero interest” in peace in Ukraine, and Moscow’s goal is to destabilize the neighboring country as much as possible.
Warnig, 65, doesn’t like publicity. When asked how often he meets with Putin, the latter’s friend and former Stasi agent replied that the Russian president did not have a mobile phone, but added: “If I need to see it, we are already fixing it.”
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