Russia said on Monday it had killed five “saboteurs” from Ukraine on its soil, further fueling fears of an imminent invasion, hours after it had already dashed Western hopes of a Russian-American summit to achieve de-escalation. .
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According to the Russian army, quoted by news agencies, “five people belonging to a group of saboteurs and intelligence who violated the border of Russia have been eliminated”. She also assured that Ukrainian army vehicles had entered Russian territory to evacuate their men.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry denied the incident, saying no soldiers had crossed the border or been killed.
The Russian assertions, unverifiable from independent sources, come at a time when Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of seeking a pretext – even if it means staging it – to justify an armed intervention.
According to the West, Moscow has positioned around 150,000 soldiers on the borders of Ukraine, both in Russia and in Belarus.
Shortly before, the Kremlin had showered the hopes of a summit of American Presidents Joe Biden and Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin to try to find a diplomatic solution to the worst crisis between Moscow and the West since the Cold War, calling it “premature” the idea of such a meeting announced by Paris.
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Tensions, which have been growing steadily in recent months, have flared up for three days with the multiplication of clashes in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv forces and pro-Moscow separatists have been clashing since 2014 The latter called on Mr. Putin on Monday to recognize their independence and to establish “defence cooperation”.
A sign of European efforts to avoid a war, French President Emmanuel Macron had two telephone conversations Sunday evening with Mr. Poutine, and another with Mr. Biden.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also due to speak on the phone with the master of the Kremlin on Monday.
AFP
Olaf Scholz.
Despite the reluctance displayed by the Kremlin, a summit between Russian and American leaders “is possible”, estimated the French presidency on Monday, urging Moscow to “make its choice”.
Mr. Putin told Mr. Macron on Sunday that he was “not against summits”, but that it was necessary first “to understand what would result from it”, declared the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, including a meeting with his American counterpart Antony Blinken is scheduled for Thursday.
Adding to the tensions, Moscow said on Monday that artillery fire from Ukraine had destroyed an outbuilding of a Russian border crossing in the Rostov region. Kiev categorically denied the allegation and accused Russia of “producing false information” to justify military aggression.
All eyes are now on a meeting in Moscow of the Security Council, which brings together the main military and intelligence officials, which Mr. Putin was to chair on Monday.
On the ground in eastern Ukraine, clashes continued on Monday, with Kyiv reporting 14 shellings by pro-Russian rebels, in which one soldier was injured.
The separatists accuse Kiev of preparing a general offensive and have decreed a general mobilization, while the Ukrainian army says to remain on its positions.
AFP
The rebels reported three civilian deaths in shelling over the past 24 hours, as well as the explosion of an ammunition depot in the Novoazovsk region, accusing “Ukrainian saboteurs” of having been responsible.
Still according to them, 21,000 people are deprived of water because of Ukrainian bombardments.
These assertions could not be independently verified and Westerners maintain that they are part of a Russian scenario aimed at trying to justify an intervention, as Moscow has repeatedly warned of the “genocide” that Kiev would be orchestrating.
Russia assured Monday that at least 61,000 people had been “evacuated” from separatist areas to its territory.
“It’s war, the real one,” said Tatiana Nikoulina, 64, who is one of those people transported from the Donetsk region to the Russian city of Taganrog. Since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, “they could not find a compromise and that is why all this continues”.
Not far away, Svetlana, 58, says she is “very tired”, but hopes she can “come home”.
Moscow and Kiev accuse each other of being responsible for this outbreak of violence in a conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives since its outbreak in 2014, in the wake of the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by Russia.
The Russians defend themselves from any project of invasion of Ukraine, but do not give the reasons for the deployment of tens of thousands of men, supported by tanks and other missile launchers.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, is calling for an end to NATO’s enlargement policy and its withdrawal from Eastern Europe, demands rejected by the West.
The latter have threatened Moscow with devastating sanctions in the event of an offensive against Ukraine, threats swept away by Russia.
Sign, however of market concern, Russian stock indices fell about 10% on Monday afternoon.