LUGANSK, January 28. /TASS/. Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) sees no critical increase of Ukrainian Armed Forces’ numbers in the Joint Forces Operation area in Donbass, LPR People’s Militia head Yan Leschenko told TASS Friday.
"We’ve been observing the main reinforcement since the beginning of the New Year holidays. We do not observe a critical increase in the Joint Forces Operation area, but we do observe additional personnel and vehicles assigned to Ukrainian units that perform missions at the contact line, as well as training events and relocation of forces from core Ukrainian territory to borders of Transnistria, Belarus, Russia and Donbass People’s Republic," Leschenko stated.
Recently, claims of Russia’s potential invasion in Ukraine have become frequent in Ukraine and Western states. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called such reports empty and groundless escalation of tensions, underscoring that Russia does not pose any threat to anyone. Peskov noted that provocations may happen in order to justify such claims and warned that such attempts will bear the most serious consequences.
Meanwhile, Russia proposed to sign legally binding agreements with the US and NATO on mutual guarantees of security due to what Moscow calls a continued "military exploitation" of Ukrainian territory by the alliance. The sides held several rounds of negotiations, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s personal meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which the Russian top diplomat reiterated that Russia is not going to attack Ukraine.
Recently, Ukrainian authorities, including President Vladimir Zelensky and National Defense and Security Council Secretary Alexey Danilov made statements that there are no reasons for panic, and urged the citizens and the media "not to fall for fake news" and remain calm. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba noted that Ukrainian partners destabilize Ukraine with their statements about the alleged upcoming Russian invasion.