MOSCOW — Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of massing troops near the border between the two countries and demanded that Moscow stop its “unacceptable military intervention” ahead of what Kiev calls an illegal referendum in Crimea on joining the Russian Federation.
Russia denied that it its massing forces or intends to invade the former Soviet republic on its southwestern border.
Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told reporters in Kiev that Russia has deployed more than 80,000 troops, up to 270 tanks and 140 combat planes close to the border, creating the “threat of a full-scale invasion from various directions,” the Associated Press reported.
Parubiy said some Russian troops are as close as a two- or three-hour drive from the Ukrainian capital.
In Moscow, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov denied that any military buildup was underway on Russia’s nearly 1,250-mile border with Ukraine.
The purported buildup came as interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited Washington on Wednesday to meet President Obama and enlist U.S. support in Ukraine’s standoff with Russia.
Obama warned Russia that the United States and its allies “will be forced to apply a cost” if Moscow does not end its incursion into Ukraine’s Crimea region and annexes the territory.
Calling Russia’s incursion into Crimea a violation of international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Obama said the United States “will stand with Ukraine in ensuring that that territorial integrity and sovereignty is maintained.”
With Yatsenyuk seated alongside him in the Oval Office, Obama said: “We will continue to say to the Russian government that if it continues on the path that it is on, then not only the United States but the international community . . . will be forced to apply a cost to Russia’s violations of international law and its encroachments on Ukraine. There’s another path available, and we hope that President [Vladimir] Putin is willing to seize that path.”
