Ukraine in Arabic | Russia tightens military equipment to the border with Ukraine
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Instead of complying with the Minsk agreements, militants, supported by Russian regular troops, continued to shell Ukrainian military and civilian targets. Since the beginning of the ceasefire (September 5) militants have violated the ceasefire over 2,700 times.
An the same time, according to Ukraine's envoy to the UN Yuriy Sergeyev, Russia has deployed 200 tanks, 1,600 vehicles, 640 artillery units, 191 aircraft and 121 combat helicopters on the border with Ukraine.
"As many as 131 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, over 500 were wounded, and 65 civilians were killed," Sergeyev said.
He also pointed to Russia's attempt to create a land corridor to the occupied Crimea and concentrate Russian troops on Ukrainian territory.
"An illegal Russian convoy with heavy weapons is spotted almost every day. Russia's representative today said that his government does not provide any military support to separatists in Ukraine. This means that someone else, not the state, which has missiles, tanks and guns, supplies them to illegal formations in Ukraine. Someone else in Russia attacks planes and helicopters and violates our airspace," the diplomat said.
He described the scale of the accumulation of Russian military forces on the border with Ukraine.
"We have repeatedly heard about the readiness to withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory. Today, on the border, there are 200 tanks, 1,600 vehicles, 640 artillery units, 191 aircraft, 121 combat helicopters, but neither Ukraine nor the OSCE has received any clarification on this matter," Sergeyev said.
Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Alexander Pankin said during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that there was no evidence that Russia had moved its troops through the Ukrainian border.