Russia has moved troops, tanks and heavy artillery to a new base about 150 miles from the Ukrainian border, stoking fears of a military offensive.
It is thought to be Russia’s biggest show of force in the area since 2015, when Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists signed a peace deal to end fighting in the eastern Donbass region. At least ten Ukrainian personnel have died during a recent rise in hostilities.
Ruslan Khomchak, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, said last week that
Russia had
amassed 25,000 troops in the border regions of Bryansk, Rostov and Voronezh, as well as in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Russia has expressed concerns about a potential Ukrainian assault on separatist-held territories within its borders. A senior Kremlin official warned yesterday that any attack could lead to the destruction of Ukraine as an independent state. “This would be the beginning of the end of Ukraine,” Dmitri Kozak, deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, said.
Kozak said Russia could move to protect its citizens in Donbass if Ukraine tries to recapture the breakaway regions. Moscow has handed out at least 200,000 Russian passports to residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic since 2019. It claims that any Russian servicemen in east Ukraine are “on vacation”.The newly deployed Russian forces are massing in a camp near the south-western city of Voronezh, according to images posted by the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a Russian investigative group. Number plates indicate that the vehicles came from hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
The Voronezh region does not border either separatist-held territory, making it an implausible base for operations in Donbass. “It is obvious that the disposition of Russian forces, at least in the Voronezh region, is more offensive than defensive in nature,” the CIT said. (My italics)
President Putin told Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in a phone call yesterday that Ukraine was inflaming tensions in the region. Moscow alleged this week that a Ukrainian army drone had killed a five-year-old boy in Donbass. Kiev denies responsibility; an official said the boy may have died after picking up an explosive device discarded by Russian-backed forces.
President Zelensky of Ukraine has urged Nato to admit his country quickly. The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that this would “aggravate” tensions.