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Statement on RF troops concentration near Ukrainian border incorrect - Defence Ministry

International inspections have not registered any undeclared military activity on the part of Russia in the areas adjacent to the Ukrainian border, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said

MOSCOW, July 27 /ITAR-TASS/. The statement by U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas E. Lute and spokeswoman of the U.S. Department of State Marie Harf on the concentration of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border does not reflect reality, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.

According to the Vienna Document of 2011 and the Treaty on Open Skies, eighteen international inspections have been carried out over Russia’s territory. “These inspections have not registered any violations or undeclared military activity on the part of Russia in the areas adjacent to the Ukrainian border,” Konashenkov said.

The Defence Ministry also said that “at the same time, Ukrainian armed forces’ active combat actions in the areas adjacent to the Russian border make impossible similar inspection flights under the Treaty on Open Skies.”

“The Russian Defence Ministry is certain that official inspections in these areas would register high concentration of Ukrainian troops, armaments and military equipment that regularly shell Russian settlements and have already killed and injured our citizens there,” Konashenkov said.

The ministry also once again reminded the U.S. colleagues that apart from social media from which they, as is known, today get most of intelligence data on the Russian armed forces, there are also other information sources trustworthiness of which is beyond question.