Wednesday 17th November 2021
“Three Red Alert”
Ukrainian ambassador: threat of invasion
NATO warns Moscow about Russian troop movements on the border with Ukraine. The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin says that the danger of invasion has never been greater since the occupation of Crimea. He has demands on the traffic light parties.
The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin warns of the growing risk of an invasion in view of Russian troop movements on the border with Ukraine. “Never since 2014, when the Russians occupied Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine with armed force, has the danger of a new, large-scale invasion been more acute than these days,” Andrij Melnyk told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “We have three red alerts.”
The Ukrainian and Western intelligence services had observed a massive increase in the Russian troop concentration for days, he emphasized. “The Russians have around 114,000 soldiers off the eastern border of Ukraine and in the occupied Donbass. Around 32,000 troops are stationed in the occupied Crimea, including several thousand in Belarus.”
Melnyk called it worrying that the Russian military had left heavy weapons behind after the last major maneuvers in April and autumn. “There are, for example, artillery, tanks, missile systems and multiple rocket launchers, for the most part along the eastern border. A total of over 30 tactical battalion groups are on constant alert almost 250 kilometers from the Ukrainian border on Russian soil.” Additional troops could be called back for an attack within a few days, said the Ukrainian ambassador.
In the direction of the traffic light parties and thus the likely new federal government, Melnyk appealed on behalf of his government: “Send hard signals to Putin that his destabilization tactics and his blackmail attempts – be it gas deliveries, migrants or troop transfers – are unsuccessful.” The coalition agreement would have to include much tougher sanction demands such as an embargo on Russian oil and gas imports, he said. Nord Stream 2, the Kremlin’s main weapon, should also be stopped forever. “That would make Putin think.”