A Ukrainian serviceman leaves a coomand post to start his shift at a frontline position outside Popasna, in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine.
Highlights
- Russia said that shell fired from Ukraine had destroyed border facility of Russian Federal Security.
- At least 150,000 Russian troops are deployed outside Ukraine’s borders, along with tanks.
- Western nations have threatened massive sanctions if Putin invades Ukraine.
Amid growing tensions and the West's fears about an invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities on Monday said that a shell fired from Ukraine had destroyed a border facility of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), reported news agency AFP.
"On February 21, at 9:50 am (0650 GMT), an unidentified projectile fired from Ukraine completely destroyed a border facility used by the FSB border guard service in the Rostov region around 150 meters from the Russian-Ukrainian border," news agency AFP reported, quoting a statement by the security service carried by Russian news agencies.
The tension between the two neighbouring nations started late last year after Russia began building up troops on its western border with Ukraine. Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe, shares borders to the east and northeast.
Since November, Ukraine and some Western countries accused Russia of assembling heavy troops near the Ukrainian border with a possible intention of "invasion", a charge repeatedly denied by Moscow saying it has the right to mobilise troops within its borders to defend its territory as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) activities constitute a threat to the country's border security.
Russia’s action extended what it said were military exercises, originally set to end Sunday, that brought an estimated 30,000 Russian forces to Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbour to the north. They are among at least 150,000 Russian troops now deployed outside Ukraine’s borders, along with tanks, warplanes, artillery and other war materiel.
The continued deployment of the Russian forces in Belarus has raised concern that Russia could send those troops to sweep down on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a city of about 3 million people less than a three-hour drive away.
Russia wants to prevent Ukraine’s drift toward the United States. It is demanding an "assurance" by NATO that Ukraine will never join the powerful military alliance of 30 nations that was founded in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II with an objective to ensure peace in Europe and counter the threat posed at the time by the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, the US has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the decision to roll forces into Ukraine was based on intelligence that Russian front-line commanders have been given orders to begin final preparations for an attack.
On Saturday, Russia held nuclear drills as well as the conventional exercises in Belarus, and has ongoing naval drills off the coast in the Black Sea.
The United States and many European countries have charged for weeks that Putin has built up the forces he needs to invade Ukraine — a westward-looking democracy that has sought to move out of Russia’s orbit — and is now trying to create pretexts to invade. Western nations have threatened massive sanctions if Putin does.
Also Read | Russia-Ukraine conflict: What Moscow wants, the West's interests | EXPLAINED
Also Read | Russia-Ukraine News: 'Premature to hold' Putin-Biden summit on Ukraine, says Kremlin
