Ukraine warns Russian invasion possible ‘at any minute’ after Moscow’s soldiers seen near border with Crimea
The warning raised fears of a return to war in the country, where the United Nations has noted an ominous recent surge in violence
UKRAINE has claimed that a Russian invasion is possible at “any minute”, amid reports that Moscow’s troops were on the move in Crimea.
The warning raised fears of a return to war in the country, where the United Nations has noted an ominous recent surge in violence.
The Russian forces that annexed Crimea in early 2014, following Ukraine’s pro-western revolution, stopped all traffic between the peninsula and the rest of Ukraine for several hours on Sunday.
Local pro-Ukrainian activists said large numbers of Russian soldiers and armoured vehicles were in the area.
“The occupiers are conducting manoeuvres and we should understand that at any minute, at any hour, they could start a large-scale or small-scale attack,” said Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman for Ukraine’s presidential administration.
On Saturday, a bomb exploded in the separatist-held city of Luhansk beside an SUV carrying the local militant leader, Igor Plotnitsky.
The device appeared to be attached to a lamppost, which was split by the blast.
The extent of Plotnitsky’s injuries was not clear, but separatist-run media released what they said was a recording made by him as he recovered in hospital, during which he accused Ukraine and its US backers of being behind the attack.
“This will be reported to the president of the Russian Federation and the FSB,” he said, referring to the security service formerly run by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“Those who want remove the legal authorities in LNR [the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic] are provocateurs.
“It’s not worth listening to them, because they want to destabilise and reduce to nothing everything that we have achieved.”
In 2014, Russia made several military moves into Ukrainian territory – despite condemnation from much of the world.
At a G20 summit of world leaders in Australia, then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was said to have chastised Putin over Ukraine.
He allegedly told him: “I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine.”
