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Russia is massing 120,000 troops along the Ukrainian border — and may not stop there — Kyiv’s top diplomat warned Tuesday.
The situation has rattled Western allies, who fear an invasion could be afoot. Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine in 2014, drawing international condemnation and setting off a years-long, low-level skirmish along the border between the two countries.
“Russian troops continue to arrive in close proximity to our borders in the northeast, in the east and in the south,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during an online press conference. “In about a week, they are expected to reach a combined force of over 120,000 troops.”
And there’s no guarantee Moscow “will stop building up their forces at that number,” he added.
“What is even more worrying,” he said, “is that it is not just troops, but also paratroopers in Crimea, electronic warfare systems able to jam communications over the entire territory of Ukraine, ballistic missiles and some other clear signs of potentially offensive capabilities.”
The exact number of Russian troops deployed along the Ukrainian border has been a source of some confusion in recent days.
During a press conference on Monday, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said 150,000 Russian troops had gathered along the border and in Crimea. But in a transcript of Borrell’s remarks published later, the European External Action Service — the EU’s diplomatic body — corrected the figure to “more than 100,000.”
Kuleba called on other countries to isolate and economically punish Moscow over its behavior. He said that while participating in a video meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, he urged member countries to “start considering a new round of sectoral sanctions against Russia,” arguing that merely sanctioning individuals may “complicate lives of some persons” but won’t “stop the war.”
“History proves that only painful economic sanctions can make a difference,” he added.
It doesn’t appear EU members are willing to take that step, though. Borrell on Monday said no additional sanctions were on the table over the Ukraine matter. Kuleba on Tuesday echoed the assessment.
“I did not register a consensual appetite for sectoral sanctions,” he said.
Kuleba also said he hadn’t even raised with EU foreign ministers the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will carry natural gas from Russia to Germany if completed, cutting off Ukraine. While Kyiv opposes the project — as do the U.S. and other key allies — Berlin has steadfastly stood behind it.
Instead, Kuleba said, he raises the issue “in all bilateral conservations I’m having.”
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