In a defiant message towards Russia concentrating forces on the western border of Ukraine, hundreds of tanks and special forces of the Ukrainian army participated in a huge exercise held on the border
Hundreds of tanks took part in the exercise along with special forces of the Ukrainian army, a few kilometers from the line of confrontation with the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, an exercise that is a defiant message towards Russia, concentrating forces on the western border of Ukraine.
The exercise today (Thursday) joins a series of additional exercises that have taken place in recent weeks in a motorized infantry fighter and anti-armor combat.
On Sunday, a senior general in the Ukrainian army claimed in a conversation with the American newspaper “Military Times” that Russia had gathered almost one hundred thousand soldiers on the country’s eastern border. And it is preparing for a military operation in the country’s territory as early as January.
According to the senior official, General Kirilo Bodnov, serving in the Kiev intelligence service, the attack will include an initial phase of aerial bombardment, artillery fire, and a large landing of special forces. The source explained that Russia has practiced in the Crimean peninsula a landing of a force of 3,500 paratroopers in a rapid air operation and the purpose of the exercise is an attack on the airports and Ukrainian military bases in the east of the country. This is according to the report in “Israel Today”.
Meanwhile, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel provided a scathing statement on the Ukrainian issue, saying that any Russian aggression against Ukraine should be met with heavy EU sanctions on Russia. “Any Russian aggression against Ukraine will carry a heavy price.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kolba said in an interview with local media today that he had sent a message to the Kremlin that an attack on Ukraine’s territory would exact “huge political, economic and human losses from Russia and cost Moscow a lot of decision-makers.”