A top Ukrainian general said his troops were “ready” for any Russian military assault, as concerns grew over the accumulation of troops at Moscow’s borders.
His comments come as tensions between countries are rising and far from the front line, after the Russian security service FSB said it had detained a Ukrainian diplomat for receiving sensitive information from a Russian citizen.
Russia has gathered tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border, including the deployment of tanks, missile artillery and air defense systems. Moscow said this was in response to NATO’s deployment and suggested the measures were temporary.
However, as part of Russia’s largest military build-up in 2014 – when Moscow annexed Crimea – the movements have raised the specter of another incursion into Ukrainian territory.
Major General Viktor Ganushchak, the deputy commander of what Ukraine calls Operation Joint Forces, said his troops were ready for the Kremlin’s next move.
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“We are ready for the assault if it happens,” he said in a briefing near the front line. telegraph“We can see an increase in the number of troops and equipment at our border, but we cannot say for sure.”
“We can’t make any predictions. But they bring battalion tactical groups to our border,” he added.
To the mistrust between Moscow and Kiev was added the detention of Oleksandr Sosoniuk from the Consulate General of Ukraine in St. Petersburg.
The FSB said on Saturday that Sosoniuk had been detained for obtaining classified information from databases belonging to the FSB and law enforcement.
“This activity is incompatible with the status of diplomatic worker and is clearly hostile to the Russian Federation,” the FSB said in a statement, according to Tass news agency.
Russia has previously detained Ukrainian citizens suspected of espionage, but the detention of a diplomat is rare. As mentioned by the news agency, under the Vienna Convention, diplomats have immunity in the country where they operate, but can be declared persona non grata “in case of violation of the law or hostile actions”.
Meanwhile, sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry told the newspaper Kommersantthat the envoy may be expelled.
“The question is whether he will be declared persona non grata or will be limited to a statement about the undesirability of a subsequent stay in the country,” a source told the newspaper.
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin has denied Russian allegations that Sosoniuk has received secret information, telling Ukraine 24 that his detention is part of a “brutal challenge” amid Russian troops, Hromadske reported.
Meanwhile, Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said that the circumstances of the detention were being investigated and that Kiev was “preparing a response,” RIA Novosti reported.
In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said: “We absolutely reject the accusations brought against the consular officer.”
“In response to this challenge, a senior diplomat from the Russian Embassy in Kiev was ordered to leave Ukraine within 72 hours, starting on April 19.”
This story has been updated to include a statement to Newsweek from Ukraine’s foreign ministry.