MOSCOW, May 08. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine has deployed 15,000-strong military force near Russia’s borders, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said.

“The 15,000-strong grouping of Ukrainian forces has been deployed in the border areas. Military conscription has resumed (in Ukraine),” he said. “At the same time, NATO amasses its grouping of forces in Eastern Europe,” Antonov noted.

The high-ranking military official said such actions are not contributing to the efforts to deescalate tensions in Ukraine considering the ongoing crisis in the country.

Antonov said that Russia calls on the official representatives of NATO and Pentagon “to quit cynically deluding the international society on the real state of affairs on the Russian-Ukrainian border.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia pulled all its forces from its borders with Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, however, announced earlier in the day that Russia’s military forces were still present in the border areas.