Kyiv: Russia amassing troops near Mariupol and Kharkiv
Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation Major-General Bogdan Bondar said during a broadcast of Hromadske.TV that Russia is amassing troops along the Ukrainian-Russian border near Mariupol and Kharkiv.
According to Bondar, Russia has been gradually doing this from the beginning of the conflict in the Donbas.
"At the beginning of the conflict, they also had limited opportunities. However, during this time, they have built training ranges, places for the deployment of military units. They have also expanded the old facilities. There was not threat for Russia in that direction, but now they have almost rebuilt the railway, which no longer passes through the territory of Ukraine", - said Bondar.
He added that the Russian Federation had built a military infrastructure to be able to carry out the deployment of military forces and equipment in a short time.
Earlier, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Ambassador Yasar Halit Cevik, in his first address to the Permanent Council in Vienna, described the withdrawal of forces and equipment in Stanytsia Luhanska as a "commendable step forward" towards withdrawal of the forces and equipment along the entire line of contact.
The separation of forces and means in the Stanytsia Luhanska began on June 26. There have been no attacks by militants in the area over the past week. For the last 24 hours, one Ukrainian soldier was killed, and six were injured in the Joint Forces Operation area.