MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. There are no unsubstantiated Russian troop movements or unplanned military exercises near the border with Ukraine, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with the government’s Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday.

"The rhetoric of the Western media and US high-placed officials that Russia allegedly nurtures aggressive plans is groundless. The Russian Federation has never displayed any hostility towards any state and, all the more so, towards Ukraine where the people common with us by kinship, the language and history is living," Patrushev said.

"There are no unsubstantiated Russian troop movements and unscheduled drills near the border with Ukraine," Russia’s security chief said.

As Patrushev recalled, some time ago Ukrainian officials, including Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov rejected US media speculations of Russia’s military build-up near the border.

"However, then, apparently after getting relevant instructions, they assumed a different position facilitating Kiev to beef up its military spending, provoke tension in the country’s east and regularly bombard the territories of the DPR and the LPR [the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics], in particular, with the help of strike drones, artillery and other heavy weapons in violation of the Minsk Accords," the Russian security chief said.