West ignores results of int’l missions that found no troop build-up near Ukraine borders – Moscow
by alethoRT | March 28, 2014
Russia
has denied any troop build-up on the Ukraine border, a claim voiced by
President Barack Obama and Kiev officials. Moscow slammed the West for
ignoring the results of recent fact-finding missions for the sake of
political expediency.
On Friday
Obama urged Russia to pull back “a range of troops,” which he said, “we
have seen […] massing along that border under the guise of military
exercises."
"But these are not what Russia would normally be doing," Obama said, speaking with CBS on his trip to Rome.
He then suggested that the troop build-up could be “just an effort to intimidate Ukraine.”
"It may be that they've got additional plans," Obama said.
The
US president’s comments came the day after a Ukrainian security
official told Executive Vice President of the US-Atlantic Council Damon
Wilson that “almost 100,000 soldiers are stationed on the borders of
Ukraine and in the direction ... of Kharkov, Donetsk.”
"Russian
troops are not only in Crimea, they are along all Ukrainian borders.
They're in the south, they're in the east and in the north," Andrey
Parubiy, one of the so-called Maidan “commandants” who has been
appointed chairman of Ukraine's Security Council, told the Atlantic
Council during a web conference Thursday.
Parubiy expressed his worry that continental Ukraine might “see a huge attack” on its territory.
“We are getting ready for it," he said.
In
the past few days, Western media has extensively reported that Russia
is positioning its troops in Crimea and along the Ukrainian border. Some
of the major news outlets speculated that Russian troops “appeared to
be concealing their positions, trying to cloak their equipment, and
establishing supply lines.”
Responding
to those accusations, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement, in
which it recalled four probes in March by foreign missions in Russia of
regions bordering Ukraine.
The ministry said that “even Ukrainian inspectors” agreed that “there were no major military activities being carried out.”
The
four international missions included representatives of Latvia,
Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Belgium, France and Ukraine.
None of the missions “found ‘aggressive preparations’ and have not
recorded any military activities, aside from the previously declared,”
the statement said.
“Opportunities
to conduct such activities were provided to all those who wished to get
acquainted with the real situation in the border with Ukraine regions,”
the ministry said.
The
statement emphasized that “even Ukrainian inspectors” agreed that
“there were no major military activities being carried out.”
“The
result of this was the official reports submitted to all OSCE member
states. The objective information contained in those reports, in our
view, should have become a subject of an impartial analysis and basis
for further conclusions,” the statement said.
This, however, is not the case here, the ministry said.
As
another proof that there are no additional Russian troops and active
military preparations, the Foreign Ministry referred to recent observation flights by American and German inspectors.
“The
official results of those flights will be known later, after the
processing of photographic materials. However, one can assume that if
signs of large concentration of the armed forces were spotted from the
air, our partners would not wait to present the ‘evidence’. Hence, it
simply does not exist,” the ministry said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry also questioned the objectivity of Western politicians.
"Is
objective information collected by military inspectors not provided to
the political leadership [of Western countries]? Or are these leaders,
yielding to their emotions, inclined to ignore the facts in order to
satisfy their own political tastes and preferences?" the ministry said.
Related article
No comments:
Post a Comment