LONDON, December 15. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said that there was no evidence that Russia was preparing an imminent invasion of Ukrainian territory.
"Nothing has changed [over the last few days on the Russian-Ukrainian border]," he said in an interview with Reuters. "There has been some increase in [Russia’s] troop numbers but not critical enough for us to say: this is it, it [an invasion] is going to happen now," he said. According to Danilov, currently Russia has 92,000 troops at the frontier. He also noted that "in order to keep the situation under control in the event of an offensive" Russia would need at least 500,000-600,000 soldiers at the border.
Danilov said Russia could increase troop numbers very quickly and at any moment, but would need more than 24 hours to bring enough troops to the border to mount an invasion. The council secretary hopes that in such an event, NATO would help Ukraine with weapon supplies.
Western countries and the Kiev regime have been spreading allegations lately about Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these speculations as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tension. He did not rule out the probability of provocations to justify such allegations and warned that attempts to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine through military means would have serious consequences. The Russian presidential spokesman also assured that Moscow was making every effort to help Kiev settle the Donbass conflict, while remaining committed to the Normandy format and the Minsk Agreements.