Ukrainian General Staff: Russia troops continue to strengthen their positions along Crimean administrative border
The Russian military have been implementing demonstrative and provocative actions on the administrative border of the Crimea. This was reported to ZN.UA by the chief of the press service of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vladislav Seleznyov.
According to him, starting on the morning of the 11th of August, Russian troops began strengthening their military positions near several checkpoints of the administrative border. This was particularly evident in the direction of the Dzhankoy Chonhar checkpoint and the Armyansk Kalanchak checkpoint.
“Today at 11am in the direction of the Dzhankoy Chonhar checkpoint, a mechanized company arrived. It consisted of up to 100 people on eight infantry fighting vehicles, and they began to brazenly dig into the ground. It was all over at 2 pm and then they left,” Seleznyov said. He continued to say that “at approximately 2:15pm, another company using road transport also arrived. They too began poking at the ground”.
He added that also at 2 pm, approximately 100 Russian military personnel came to the Kalanchak checkpoint.
“At 2 pm, in the area of the Kalanchak border crossing point, which is found in the direction of Armyansk, 100 people in five KAMAZ vehicles arrived. They set up their positions and began digging into the ground. The distance between Dzhankoy and the administrative border is 2km and can only be seen with the help of binoculars. However, from Armyansk, it can be seen with the naked eye as the distance is only between 500m and 1km. The military troops also drove towards Armyansk in a BM-21, which is the MLRS Grad,” he added.
The FSB had previously reported on the prevention of terrorist attacks in the Crimea. During one such operation, an employee of the FSB and the Russian Defense Ministry was killed. Russia claimed that “the purpose of the sabotage and terrorist attacks is to destabilize the socio-political situation in the region during the preparation and implementation of the elections of the federal and regional authorities”.