Moscow has strengthened military presence at border with Ukraine

Russia has drastically strengthened its military presence at its shared border with Ukraine, announced, on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, warning of the threat of a "full-scale war" with Moscow, as AFP reports.

"Number of tanks in the (Russian military) bases located along our border has tripled", Poroshenko told three Ukrainian television channels. "Number of military units placed along our border has increased drastically", he added, without specifying since when.

Head of the Ukrainian state also noted a strong increase in the number of Russian military ships in the Azov Sea and a Russian military presence strengthened in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow four years ago, citing data from the Ukrainian intelligence services.

In Crimea, 'the number of soldiers has tripled since 2014, that of the armored vehicles has increased five times, and that of artillery nearly ten times', Poroshenko said.

"Ukraine faces the threat of a total war with the Russian Federation", he stated.

Petro Poroshenko also said he tried to speak on the phone with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, after Russia captured three Ukrainian military ships on Sunday night, but did not receive an answer.

'That night, I asked for a talk with Russian President Putin. I did not get an answer. And I had to ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel to talk to Putin about this incident, Head of the Ukrainian state said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, quoted by Russian press agencies, only said that there was no telephone contact between the two presidents.

On Sunday, Russian coast guard, subordinated to the Federal Security Service (FSB), captured two naval vessels and a Ukrainian navy tug, which Moscow accuses of illegally entering Russian territorial waters off the Crimean Peninsula. This incident occurred in the Black Sea as these ships tried to penetrate the Kerch Strait to enter the Sea of Azov.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei