Russia appears to be strengthening its military presence on the annexed Crimean peninsula. There were more than ten fighters moved there, reported the Interfax news agency, citing the Ministry of Defense in Moscow.
They should be permanently stationed at the converted Belbek Air Force Base. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Ukraine is preparing "a provocation" before the turn of the year, it said. The aircraft should be Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets. There is currently no further confirmation for the relocation of the aircraft.
At the end of November, Russian media reported plans by the Moscow government to transfer an S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to the Crimea.
Russia had annexed the Crimea in 2014. The tensions in the region have recently intensified following an incident in the strait of Kerch at the entrance to the Black Sea. Martial law is currently in force in the border regions of Ukraine with Russia and Belarus.
DPA
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov criticized neighboring Ukraine exceptionally sharply on Monday. It is not Russia that is fighting against the "Ukrainian regime", said in an interview with the pro-Kremlin mass newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in Moscow. "Against the Ukrainian regime, which has all the characteristics of Nazis and neo-Nazis, the Russian-speaking Ukrainians living in the Donbass fight."
Lavrov warns Ukraine
In the Donbass coal field in eastern Ukraine, since 2014, the Ukrainian army has resisted pro-Russian separatists. Their fighting power is based primarily on the constant supply of weapons, ammunition and fighters from Russia. Lavrov, however, opposed the recognition of the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as their own states. "And what then?" He asked. "Even losing the rest of Ukraine and leaving it to the Nazis?"
He warned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko about an allegedly planned attack on the border with the Crimean peninsula. "Then he gets a reaction that makes him hear and see," Lavrov threatened. He did not mention the foundation of a weekend Ukrainian Orthodox national church. However, the separation of Ukraine from Ukraine is a defeat for the Russian Orthodox Church as well as for the Moscow policy.