Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of deploying half its army to Donbass, a conflict zone in eastern Ukraine where government forces have been fighting with Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
“The Ukrainian army is building up its military strength, bringing in hardware and personnel,” said Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson.
Zakharova said that according to some reports, the number of troops in the conflict zone had already reached 125,000 people, “which is half of the entire Ukrainian army.”
The Ukrainian military has declined to comment on Zakharova’s statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said Moscow was alarmed by Ukraine’s actions and that he would discuss the situation with the U.S. Secretary of State at a meeting in Stockholm on Thursday.
Donbass has been the site of clashes between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces since 2014, as part of the larger ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.
The accusation arrives at a time of heightened tension between Kyiv and Moscow.
Foreign ministers from NATO and Ukraine met on Wednesday to discuss how to respond to what Kyiv says is a Russian build-up of more than 90,000 troops near its border.
Both the United States and NATO have separately responded to the recent escalation, threatening unprecedented economic sanctions and urging Russia to retreat its troops from the Ukrainian border.
“We have a wide range of options to make sure that Russia will be confronted with serious consequences if they once again use force against an independent sovereign nation, Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken supported Stoltenberg’s position, “We don’t know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide.”
In a retaliatory move, Zakharova said US embassy staff who have been in Moscow for over three years have been ordered to go back to the United States by January 31.
Photo Source: DW