MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Kiev has turned to the United States with a request to deploy several battalions of US THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense systems near Kharkov, a diplomatic source told TASS on Monday.

"Ukraine has turned to the United States with a request to deploy several battalions of THAAD mobile anti-ballistic missile defense launchers with radars near Kharkov on Ukrainian territory. An AN/TPY-2 radar that makes part of the THAAD system is capable of tracking the aerospace situation over a substantial part of Russian territory and will enable Kiev and its NATO allies to ‘look deep" into the territory of Russia to a distance of up to 1,000 km," the source specified.

The West and Kiev have recently been spreading allegations about Russia’s potential ‘invasion’ of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry 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 very serious consequences.