US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia had deployed troops on the border several times before “invading” other countries, including “parts of Eastern Europe.” In her opinion, the inhabitants of Ukraine do not fully share the fears of Western countries about a possible attack by Russia, because they interpret the situation in their own way.
“They have deployed troops on the border. We observed this when they invaded the Crimea. We saw it when they invaded other parts of Eastern Europe,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with CNN. When asked by the moderator whether the US fears about Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine are fully justified, provided that the people of Ukraine themselves do not fully share them, the permanent representative replied that she sees no contradictions, since “we are all observing the same the same picture, but its interpretations may differ. She has previously said that Russia is “moving towards an inevitable invasion” of Ukraine.
The United States and its allies have been talking about an allegedly impending Russian invasion of Ukraine since last fall, arguing that Russia is redeploying troops to its western borders. In Russia, they said that the troops were moving in connection with the exercises. On February 15, the Ministry of Defense announced that it was withdrawing troops in connection with the end of the exercises, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg demanded to prove this, referring to the fact that Russia periodically transfers troops from point to point on its territory.
Yesterday, February 17, a special monitoring mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recorded 500 explosions on the contact line in Donbass. Official Kiev and the unrecognized LPR and DPR accuse each other of this, while the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine does not see the threat of an attack from Russia.
Read about the development of the situation with Ukraine in the material “Kommersant” “Donbass was on the line of incitement.”