see url:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ukraine-fears-attack-as-putin-masses-tanks-close-to-border-w73b0t5xv
see full report & video for assessment...
Quote<<<
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”.
>>>End of Quote
