Russia allegedly is preparing for "large-scale military aggression." This opinion was expressed in an interview with the Tijden.ua online edition by the head of the Main Training Department, Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Taran. According to him, “these plans are quite obvious,” although he did not provide any evidence to support his accusations of Moscow’s adders.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine, respectively, are preparing to repel armed aggression along the entire border of Ukraine. This applies not only to the contact line, but also to other areas, starting from the border with Belarus and further near the Crimea and Bessarabia, ”said Taran.
In the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, the statements of Taran were called stupid. In an interview with RT, the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, Vladimir Dzhabarov, suggested that the deputy head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces "retold some nightmare of his own."
“The stupidity that he said is even hard to evaluate. For normal people, this is strange to listen to. As for the situation, in Kiev there is a new government, a new minister of defense, but the whole apparatus of the ministry has not been changed. Therefore, there are different moods. I think that if he declares this somewhere else from some tribune, he will simply be ridiculed. No normal person can say that. I’m just ashamed that Ukraine has such military leaders, ”said Dzhabarov.
The senator also believes that it is still difficult to understand what course the new Ukrainian government has chosen towards Russia. Dzhabarov believes that this will become fully clear after the summit of the "Norman Four".
- Former and current Presidents of Ukraine - Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky
- Reuters
We add that in recent years, Ukrainian politicians and representatives of law enforcement agencies have repeatedly stated that Russia was allegedly preparing for full-scale military operations against Ukraine.
So, in February 2019, Petro Poroshenko, who was then the president of Ukraine, during a debate at the UN General Assembly in New York, spoke about a certain “tactical offensive strike group” of Russia, which is located on the border with Ukraine. In the same month, he called the real “threat of a full-scale war” between Kiev and Moscow.
At the same time, in March, the position of the head of state was supported by the former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Viktor Muzhenko. He reported that Russia was allegedly preparing an invasion of Ukraine "in three directions."
In addition, in April, Alexander Turchinov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, announced that Ukraine was only the "first bridgehead" for Russia, and in the future Moscow was aimed at a "full-scale war" in Europe.
In May, Ivan Aparshin, adviser to the current president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, on security and defense issues, emphasized that Kiev has no intention of changing course to a “war with Russia.”
“If desired, any training take-off of an attack helicopter from the Crimean air base to Dzhankoy can be considered an act of military aggression, because it is in close proximity to the borders of Ukraine. And the fact that a training flight is notified to everyone who needs to know is the second question. All these statements about improving defense capability, allegedly pulling the Russian Armed Forces to the border, and the words that we are about to wait for the invasion — we heard all this under Poroshenko, but in five years of his cries that Russia will attack tomorrow, not a single Russian soldier crossed the border, ”said RT Balbek.
"Tales of Ukrainian politicians and the military"
According to political analyst Ivan Mezyukho, the appearance in the Ukrainian media of such “horror stories” voiced by senior military officials suggests that the current Ukrainian authorities have not changed much since relations with Petro Poroshenko.
“The current Ukrainian leader uses the same unscrupulous methods in his foreign and domestic policies as Petro Poroshenko. The former president of Ukraine throughout his cadence spoke of the so-called Russian threat, even tried to introduce a state of emergency in the country. Zelensky is following in the footsteps of Poroshenko, so talking about Ukraine’s desire to establish peace in the southeast of the country is not necessary, ”the source said.
At the same time, State Duma deputy from Crimea Mikhail Sheremet emphasized that the APU should not be afraid of an attack by Russia, but of an attack by Ukrainian nationalists.
“They intimidate themselves, and then shake. The biggest aggression that the Armed Forces of Ukraine should wait for is from the Ukrainian nationalists, gangs that are actively operating in their country. Precedents of clashes and confrontations already exist, ”RIA Novosti quoted the MP as saying.