Ukraine’s acting defense minister Myhailo Koval said the Ukrainian military would fight if Russia sends in troops under the guise of a peacekeeping operation, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported yesterday.
“The United Nations has given no such [peacekeeping] mandate to the Russians,” the agency quoted Koval as saying. “Everybody is already fed-up with Russia’s games with peacekeeping.”
“If they come, they’ll get what’s coming to them: We will conduct combat operations,” Koval said.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said yesterday that Russian military aircraft had crossed the country’s airspace seven times “to provoke Ukraine to start a war.”
“Russian military aircraft today overnight crossed and violated Ukrainian airspace seven times. The only reason is to provoke Ukraine to start a war,” he said at a briefing in Rome, following a meeting with Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
He said the seizure of 13 international Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers by pro-Kremlin rebels who accuse them of being “NATO spies” was “another proof and evidence that these so-called peaceful protesters with Russian ideas are terrorists.”
Russia pledged yesterday to help free the observers, who were sent to Ukraine to monitor an April 17 accord signed in Geneva between Russia, Ukraine, the US and the EU that was meant to de-escalate the dangerous crisis in the ex-Soviet republic.
One of the observers being held by pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk needs urgent medical care, Ukraine’s state security service said in a statement yesterday.
The statement said Ukrainian security services were ready to provide medical assistance, but the separatists had rejected this offer.
“The terrorists plan to use the hostages as a human shield,” it said.
The Ukrainian premier — who cut short his trip to Rome because of rising tensions — said “Russian aggression aims to undermine global stability.”
“We urge Russia to pull back its security forces. We urge Russia to leave us alone,” he said, amid fears that Russia could be about to invade.
The Group of Seven rich countries have agreed to slap new sanctions on Moscow as early as tomorrow.
Russia has warned it has a “right” to invade to protect Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population in the east and southeast.
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