Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), said that Ukraine is closely monitoring the movement of Russian troops along the border. According to him, the threat of a full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine has existed for several years.
“There is always a threat from the Russian Federation for our country. This is the first. In 2008, President Putin, at a meeting with the President of the United States, made a statement that such a country as our country does not exist, it is an artificial formation, and, unfortunately, did not receive a harsh answer at that time from the President of the United States that this was not true, that this is an independent country that has its own sovereignty, and they are the guarantors of this immunity,” the NSDC Secretary said in an interview with BBC Ukraine.
In the context of the current military-political situation in Ukraine, Mr. Danilov recalled the conflict that took place in Georgia in 2008. Subsequently, Germany and France denied Ukraine a membership action plan (MAP) in NATO, and in 2014 the Crimean peninsula passed to Russia. To a clarifying question whether the threats of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are the same as a year ago, Mr. Danilov answered in the negative.
According to him, there are no reasons for panic in Ukraine now. Mr. Danilov also believes that the media should reduce the heat around the security situation in the country. He urged journalists to slow down against the backdrop of the situation in the country, which is being observed in the press today.
Today, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, at a meeting with employees of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on the occasion of a professional holiday, said that Ukrainian intelligence should move on to “offensive actions to defend national interests.” According to him, the Ukrainian military has learned “quite effectively to deter and counter external aggression.”
Against the background of the spread of information about a possible escalation in Ukraine, the United States and Great Britain announced the reduction of their diplomatic missions in Kiev. In addition, the EU allocated €1.2 billion to Ukraine as part of macro-financial assistance.
Read more about what experts and residents of Ukraine say about the likelihood of an escalation of the situation in the Donbass, read in the Kommersant FM article “The Escalation Assesses the Prospects.”