MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has pointed to the Ukrainian authorities' statements that they haven’t detected an unusual Russian troop presence on the border between the two countries.
"We are talking about Russian soil. Undoubtedly, the movement of our troops on our soil is solely our prerogative," Peskov said in response to a question. "You know that there are various opinions on the matter. For instance, the opinions of some senior Ukrainian officials that have been published in recent days make it clear that they haven’t detected an unusual Russian troop presence along the border that would cause concern to Ukraine. Such statements need to be taken into account," he pointed out.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said in an interview published online by the Novoye Vremya (or New Time) outlet on Wednesday that Kiev did not see a large presence of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine. In addition, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Roman Kostenko has stated that so far, there are no solid reasons to expect Russia to invade Ukraine.
The West and Kiev have recently been spreading allegations about Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine. Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. However, Peskov did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such allegations and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences. According to him, Moscow is making every possible effort to help Kiev resolve the conflict in Donbass, remaining committed to the Normandy Four format and the Minsk Agreements.