MOSCOW – The Kremlin said on Friday it feared a resumption of full-scale fighting in eastern Ukraine and could take steps to protect Russian citizens there, a stern warning coming amid a Russian troop building along the border.
The statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov reflects the Kremlin’s determination to prevent Ukraine from using force to regain control of separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military chief has denied Russian allegations that the country’s army is preparing for an attack on the rebel east.
Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists have been fighting in eastern Ukraine since shortly after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. More than 14,000 people died in the conflict, and efforts to negotiate a political settlement stalled.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to help separatists, accusations that Moscow has denied. The White House says Russia now has more troops on its border with Ukraine than ever before.
Russia also claims to have protected Russian-speakers in Crimea when it sent troops to the Black Sea Peninsula and annexed it in March 2014 following a hastily-named public vote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday after visiting troops in the east that 26 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed so far this year. More and more violations of a ceasefire agreement in July mean that ‘we again have the need to bring about a ceasefire,’ Zelenskyy said.
The separatist authorities in Donetsk said 20 troops and two civilians had been killed this year.
Western and Ukrainian officials have in recent weeks expressed concern about the growing ceasefire in the country’s industrial heartland. They also expressed concern about Russian troop cultivation along the border with Ukraine.
The concern seems to be growing stronger on Friday when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his French and German counterparts about the matter. According to the State Department, Blinken, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed the need for Russia to halt its military build-up and heated rhetoric.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a conversation with Putin on Thursday that this troop reinforcement should be removed to weaken the situation.
Peskov said Russia is free to deploy its troops on their territory wherever they want. He accused the Ukrainian military of an ‘escalation of provocative actions’ along the line of control in the east that threatened Russia’s security.
“The Kremlin fears that a civil war could resume in Ukraine. “If a civil war, a full-scale military action, resumes near our borders that would threaten the security of the Russian Federation,” Peskov said. “The continuing increase in tension is quite unprecedented.”
In Kiev the col. Genl. Ruslan Khomchak, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, has rejected Moscow’s allegations of alleged Ukrainian preparations for an offensive in the east as part of a “disinformation campaign” and a “hybrid war”.
The Russian military, meanwhile, said its scouts had trained for missions behind enemy lines during the latest exercises in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine. And in the Black Sea, the Russian navy’s missile boats practiced the enemy ships.
Dmitry Kozak, a Putin aide who serves as Russia’s biggest negotiator with Kiev, warned Ukraine on Thursday against the use of force to retake control of the East, where many residents have Russian citizenship. Such a move would “mean the beginning of an end for Ukraine”, he said, adding that Russia was likely to act to protect its citizens.
When asked about Kozak’s remark, Peskov claims that virulent nationalist rhetoric in Ukraine incites hatred against the mostly Russian-speaking population in the east. He claims that if citizens in eastern Ukraine face the threat of a massacre, “all countries, including Russia, will take steps to prevent such tragedies.”
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Friday the United States had informed Turkey that two U.S. warships would sail to the Black Sea on April 14 and April 15 and remain there until May 4 and May 5. The official spoke about the condition of anonymity in line with government rules.
Such visits by the US and other NATO ships have hampered Moscow, which has long stripped Ukraine of its efforts to build defensive ties with the West and its quest to eventually join NATO.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on Friday that Ukraine’s NATO bid would not only lead to a massive increase in the southeast, but could also have irreversible consequences for Ukraine’s state capture. ‘
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This story corrects that in 2014 Russia said it should protect Russian speakers in Crimea, not Russian citizens.
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Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.