MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would keep military forces close to its border with Ukraine as long as it saw fit and a senior Moscow security official added it could take “action” if necessary.
Western nations have called for restraint after Ukraine sounded the alarm over the build-up of Russian forces near the border and violence escalated along the line between Kiev troops and separatists in the east. Ukraine.
Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev said that Russia had no plans to intervene in the conflict.
“It simply came to our notice then. However, we are closely monitoring the situation. Concrete measures will be taken depending on how it develops, “Patrushev said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.
On Tuesday, Kiev called on NATO to pave the way for it to join the Western military alliance, and obtained an immediate reprimand from Moscow, which fiercely opposes the bloc’s eastern expansion.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, told Reuters that Kiev believes Russia is massing troops and military equipment at the border to try to rally the Russians against a foreign enemy and distract itself from national problems.
Wednesday ended the meeting of a trilateral working group on the rebel-held Donbass region of Ukraine with no tangible results, Russia’s envoy to the group Boris Gryzlov said. Gryzlov said he welcomed Ukraine’s promise to maintain a ceasefire in the Donbass.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Kiev of having strengthened its military forces and equipment on the line of contact with the Donbass separatists.
Russia has said its military moves near the border with Ukraine are defensive and pose no threat.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked how long Russian forces would be stationed near Ukraine.
“Russia’s armed forces are on Russian territory in the places they deem necessary and appropriate, and will remain there as long as our military leadership and the supreme commander deem it appropriate,” Peskov said.
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Since 2014, Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in the Donbass, a conflict that Kyiv says killed 14,000 people.
“The situation of the line of contact remains, unfortunately, extremely impatient, the situation increases and changes for the worse. The number of bombings is increasing, “Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader in Donbass, said, according to TASS news agency.
Ukraine and Western countries claim that Donbass separatists have been armed, led, funded and aided by Russians, including active Russian troops. Moscow has refused to interfere. Although a ceasefire stopped the war on a large scale in 2015, sporadic fighting never ceased.
Edited by Jonathan Oatis