{"id":116936,"date":"2021-04-02T18:10:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T10:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116936"},"modified":"2021-04-02T18:10:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T10:10:32","slug":"ukraine-says-russia-massing-troops-on-border-us-warns-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116936","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine says Russia massing troops on border, US warns Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Some observers say the reported Russian troop buildup is a test for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KIEV, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of building up troops on his country’s border as the United States warned Russia against “intimidating” Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiev has been locked in a conflict with Russian-backed separatists since 2014, and this week Ukrainian officials reported Russian troop movement in annexed Crimea and on the border, near territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, Zelensky’s ministers discussed the escalating security situation with Western allies including US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Muscle-flexing in the form of military exercises and possible provocations along the border are traditional Russian games,” Zelensky said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He accused Moscow of seeking to create “a threatening atmosphere” as Kiev hopes to resume a ceasefire brokered last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US State Department said it was “absolutely concerned by recent escalations of Russian aggressive and provocative actions in eastern Ukraine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What we would object to are aggressive actions that have an intent of intimidating, of threatening, our partner Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some observers say the reported Russian troop buildup is a test for the administration of US President Joe Biden, who caused an uproar in Moscow last month by calling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “killer”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Moscow and Kiev blamed each other for a rise in violence between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has undermined the ceasefire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky said 20 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and 57 wounded since the start of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separately, the military announced that a Ukrainian soldier was wounded in an attack it blamed on separatists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, US Secretary of Defence Austin called his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Taran, Ukraine’s defence ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Austin said during the call that Washington would “not leave Ukraine alone in the event of escalating Russian aggression”, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for his part discussed the “aggravation by the Russian Federation of the security situation” on the frontline with his Canadian counterpart Marc Garneau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia of preparing to “expand its military presence” in the separatist-controlled eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, the intelligence service said it “does not rule out” an attempt by Russian forces to move “deep into Ukrainian territory”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A high-ranking Ukrainian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the Russian army was practising “military coordination” with separatists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From mid-April their combat units will be ready for an offensive,” the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moscow has repeatedly denied sending troops and arms to buttress the separatists and Putin’s spokesman stressed on Thursday that Moscow is at liberty to move troops across its territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Russian Federation moves its armed forces within its territory at its discretion,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but he did not directly confirm a troop buildup on the Ukrainian border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that “it should not worry anyone and does not pose a threat to anyone”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula following a bloody uprising that ousted Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, the Pentagon said US forces in Europe had raised their alert status following the “recent escalations of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Milley, chairman the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Valery Gerasimov and Ruslan Khomchak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khomchak said this week that 28,000 separatist fighters and “more than 2,000 Russian military instructors and advisers” are currently stationed in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, Roman Mashovets, called for joint drills with NATO forces to “help stabilise the security situation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky was elected in 2019 promising to end the years-long conflict, but critics say a shaky ceasefire was his only tangible achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fighting has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014, according to the United Nations. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KIEV, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of building up troops on his country’s border as the United States warned Russia against “intimidating” Ukraine. Kiev has been locked in a conflict with Russian-backed separatists since 2014, and this week Ukrainian officials reported Russian troop movement in annexed Crimea and on the border, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":116938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116936"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}