Russia may begin a “peacekeeping” operation in Ukraine within the next two days, according to comments made on July 3 by sources close to Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
“There is such an option… The situation is complicated. Two days ago we advised (Ukrainian President) Petro Poroshenko to ‘freeze’ the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts for a few months, so that the rebels and the Ukrainian army stop fighting… Poroshenko did not accept the plan, and every day innocent people are dying,” the source told Russian news agency Znak.
“A peacekeeping operation from the Russian side is ready: if it is launched, several Russian units will form a protection ring around the large towns, in order to ensure the safety of peaceful citizens,” the news agency quoted the source as saying.
The reliability of the statement - as well as the identity of the source - remain unclear.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, its credibility is attested to by the fact that deputies of the Russian State Duma have been instructed to remain in Moscow over the following days amid the possibility of an emergency meeting being held.
Ukrainska Pravda also cites "Znak" journalist Katerina Vinokurova as saying information supplied by the same Foreign Ministry source in the past has always proved reliable.
The claim has provoked a strong response from Kyiv. Security Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy called it “a threat of direct aggression against Ukraine,” adding that peacekeeping forces can only be introduced under the aegis of the United Nations.
The news comes amid further reports of a military build-up in Ukraine’s east, where the government’s resumed “anti-terrorist operation” entered its third day. Parubiy denied that Russian troops had been withdrawn from the border with Ukraine, claiming that around 40,000 servicemen remain.
“The statement that Russian troops have been pulled back from the border is untrue. There was no pullback of troops, but quite the contrary, there was a [troop] rotation,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on July 4, according to Interfax.
Yuriy Stets, head of the information security department of Ukraine’s National Guard, said 20 tanks and 122 armoured vehicles from Russia have been recorded in Luhansk region.
In the meantime, further rumours of a rift between separatist forces are emerging.
Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported three desertions among rebel ranks on July 4, citing an assistant to rebel commander Igor Strelkov. On the same day, a video was posted online showing a visibly shaken Strelkov saying Sloviansk will be destroyed within two weeks if the rebel forces currently in control of the town do not receive assistance.
“If Russia does not conclude a ceasefire or intervene militarily in our name, in the name of the Russian people living here, we will be destroyed. This will happen within the week, maximum two. And the first to be destroyed will be Sloviansk, with all of its inhabitants,” Strelkov says in the video.
Territory under Russian rebel control and military hardware in their possession (July 2nd, 2014)
Also on July 4, a statement posted on the official website of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic announced the dismissal of the LPR government, including a document signed by its leader Valeriy Bolotov.
In the meantime, preparations continue ahead of another round of OSCE-mediated peace talks, slated to take place in Ukraine between Kyiv, Moscow and representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in the Donbas. The group should meet “no later than July 5 with the goal of reaching an unconditional and mutually agreed sustainable ceasefire,” according to a document signed by the parties during a July 2 meeting in Berlin.
Amid shifting dynamics in the military conflict in Ukraine’s east, rhetoric on both sides has intensified. Russia’s Foreign Ministry on July 2 demanded that the Kyiv reinstate a ceasefire abandoned by Poroshenko on July 1 and cease its military campaign.
“Again we resolutely demand that the Ukrainian authorities — provided they are still able to evaluate sensibly the consequences of the criminal policy they conduct — to stop shelling peaceful cities and villages in their own country, to return to a real ceasefire in order to save human lives,” the Foreign Ministry said.
At a press conference on July 3, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Danylo Lubkivskiy issued a stark rebuke to Moscow.
“We are warning the whole international society against becoming hostages of the alternative reality which the Kremlin is trying to impose in such a consistent and thoughtless way. There is only one voice that the world does not and cannot trust: this voice comes from the Kremlin. The world demands real actions from Russia,” Lubkivskiy said.
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