Thursday, November 18, 2021
West alarmed about Ukraine
Putin warns against crossing the “red line”
According to Vladimir Putin, the West is using army maneuvers to “escalate” the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin chief is sending a clear warning to NATO. The US and its partners, on the other hand, are concerned about massive troop movements by Russia in the border area with Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of “escalating” the conflict in Ukraine through maneuvers in the Black Sea and arms deliveries to Kiev. Western warplanes would fly only “20 kilometers from our border,” Putin said at an event by the Russian Foreign Ministry, warning against crossing a “red line”.
For their part, the NATO partners and Ukraine have been accusing Russia for days of fueling tensions by deploying large troops on the Ukrainian border and possibly even preparing an invasion of Ukraine.
“Our western partners are escalating the situation by supplying Kiev with deadly modern weapons and holding provocative military maneuvers in the Black Sea,” Putin said in his address. Putin had already denounced the military exercises in the Black Sea in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, which is exacerbating tensions between Russia and NATO.
The Russian President was apparently referring to recent exercises by US and other NATO military ships in the sea area. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby had rejected the criticism. “All of our exercises are defensive in nature and are consistent with our alliances and partnership commitments in the region,” he said.
The US, however, is “with concern” observing the movements of Russian troops in the border area with Ukraine. Berlin and Paris had expressed themselves similarly and warned against an escalation, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently warned Moscow against “military adventurism”.
As early as March, Russia gathered thousands of soldiers, heavy military equipment, naval ships and air force aircraft near the Ukrainian border and in the region of the annexed Crimean peninsula in a massive deployment of troops. After weeks, Moscow finally declared the alleged maneuver over and withdrew its soldiers.
According to information from Kiev, Russia has now again drawn 114,000 soldiers in eastern Ukraine. Around 32,000 troops are stationed on the annexed Crimean peninsula. The Ukrainian army has been fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. The West accuses Russia of supporting the separatists, which Moscow denies.