NEW YORK, January 16. /TASS/. Russia has to keep its troops on its territory near the Ukrainian border because of the tense situation and NATO’s actions, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
"There are Russian troops on the territory of the Russian Federation next to the Ukrainian borders. And we find it necessary to keep those troops there in front of the very tense situation and very unfriendly environment," he said in an interview with CNN.
In a situation when NATO is staging various military drills and is moving its military infrastructure moving towards Russia’s borders our borders, "we have to respond, we have to take measures of precaution, that’s why we have our military guys on our territory there," he said.
Recently, Western countries and Ukraine have been speaking about Russia’s possible aggression against Ukraine. Peskov earlier slammed such statements as hollow and groundless with the intention of fanning tensions. He stressed that Russia is a threat to no one but did not rule out possible provocations to justify such statements and warned that attempts at using force to settle the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have the most serious consequences.