Ukraine sees no reduction in Russian forces on border: minister

Ukraine is not witnessing the withdrawal of Russian forces from positions close to the Ukrainian border, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Monday.

“We are looking at Russian units, which today number 127,000 in the land component, and 147,000 in the naval and aviation component,” Reznikov said.

“We see no withdrawal and we are not talking about reducing the number as units can be quickly returned to their previous locations or moved to another area.”

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry gave very similar figures last week.

The update comes as new satellite images collected by Maxar on Sunday show intensified activity among Russian units near Ukraine’s northeastern border, with units that were garrisoned appearing to take up field positions.

“This new activity represents a change in the pattern of previously observed deployments of battle groups (tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and support equipment),” Maxar noted.

“Until recently, most deployments had been seen primarily deployed in or near existing military garrisons and training areas,” he said.

Reznikov added: “We do not underestimate the threat in any case, it is very high.” The minister also addressed the possibility of Russia recognizing self-declared republics in eastern Ukraine as independent.

“If they recognize these terrorist groups, who call themselves republics, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, they will directly violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said.

“It will mean that, in fact, this is a pretext for a potential invasion through the introduction of some peacekeepers or something like that, as they call it.”

Last week, Russian lawmakers appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the breakaway republics in Donbas as independent.

The Kremlin said after the vote that it had no plans to recognize the two regions, stating:

“No one remains indifferent to the fate of Donbas. But still, Russia has repeatedly stated that it remains committed to the Minsk package of measures and that Russia is in favor of implementing the entire Minsk plan as soon as possible, in the sequence that exists.”

Source: CNN Brasil

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