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NATO confirms renewed build up of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian border

NATO confirms renewed build up of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian border

20 June 2014

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen confirmed on June 19 a renewed build up of a few thousand Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border, calling it “a very regrettable step backward.” “If they’re deployed to seal the border and stop the flow of weapons and fighters, that would be a positive step. But that’s not what we’re seeing,” Rasmussen said in London, as reported by the Associated Press. The Russian Defense Ministry declined to respond.

 

Armed gangs and Russian Armed Forces units have swelled along the Russian-Ukrainian border within the last day, reported on June 19 Volodymyr Chepoviy, the spokesman for the Information-Analytical Center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. These fighters have assumed firing positions near the border and are disguising military hardware, he reported.

 

Soldiers in Ukraine’s anti-terrorist operation killed 200 separatist fighters in the Donetsk oblast on June 19, reported Vladislav Seleznev, the operation’s spokesman. Four Ukrainian soldiers died and 20 were injured during the attacks on roadblocks and ambushes, he reported. “The fighters are putting up fierce resistance,” he wrote on a Facebook report. “They are acting insidiously and hitting the operation’s force by ambush. Snipers are attacking Ukrainian units.”

 

At least 147 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the launch of the anti-terrorist operation in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, reported on June 19 the Kyiv Post. The civilian death toll is 210, including 14 children.

 

Ukraine’s parliament approved on June 19 legislation that establishes criminal responsibility for the financing of separatist forces. In particular, it imposes penalties on those financing efforts to violently undermine the constitutional order, take power or change the boundaries of territories. The punishment for financing attempts to change territorial boundaries involves a prison sentence of three to five years and confiscation of property. The punishment for financing violent attempts to undermine the constitutional order or overthrow the government is five to seven years imprisonment and confiscation of property.

 

Zenon Zawada: Putin is building up the presence of soldiers as leverage ahead of ceasefire talks, which we expect will lead to a short-lived peace. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government is preparing to criminally prosecute eastern Ukrainian businessmen who are financing the separatists, which is long overdue. We expect most of these businessmen to elude punishment since they see what’s coming down the pipeline and are already planning their exodus to Russia. That will only encourage them in their attempts to create a separate enclave out of the Donbas region. Prosecutors should have considered filing criminal charges based on current legislation to prevent their escape.

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