Ukraine says Russia has built up 115,000 troops near its border
Russia accused the United States on Thursday of ramping up tensions and ignoring Moscow’s calls to ease a standoff over Ukraine, a day after Washington announced it would deploy nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania.
Ukraine says Russia has built up 115,000 troops near its borders, stoking fears of a looming attack. Moscow denies any such plan, but Washington said on Wednesday it would send extra forces to shield eastern Europe from any crisis spillover.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the US troop deployments on a conference call with reporters.
“It’s obvious that these are not steps aimed at de-escalating tensions, but on the contrary they are actions that lead to increasing tension,” he said. “We constantly call on our American counterparts to stop aggravating tensions on the European continent. Unfortunately, the Americans continue to do so,” he said. Russia’s troop buildup comes against the backdrop of a Kremlin campaign to extract a sweeping set of security guarantees from the West. Agencies
