Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kiev and Washington do not have disagreements in assessing the security situation near the Ukrainian borders, the only difference is what terminology is used in the comments.
Earlier, the Washington Post newspaper, citing sources, reported that a number of American and European officials are concerned about the alleged “resumption of the build-up of Russian troops” near the border with Ukraine. On November 2, Politico published “satellite images” which, he claims, show the deployment of Russian troops “on the border with Ukraine” – in the Smolensk region, which does not border on Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine subsequently announced that it did not record the facts of the build-up of Russian troops near its own borders. Later, US military spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon continues to observe “disturbing movements” of Russian troops “near Ukraine.”
“We have no disagreements with the United States on assessing the security situation around Ukraine. There are disagreements in the terminology used in this commentary,” the Ukrinform news agency quoted Kuleba as saying.
According to him, when Russian troops are massively deployed to the Ukrainian border, this is alarming, but this is not yet evidence of the decisive stage of preparation for the offensive.
“When offensive formations are being prepared from the troops that have already been transferred, then we are already approaching a certain line of no return, and this is a completely different state,” Kuleba said and noted that so far Ukraine’s intelligence does not record the existence of offensive formations along the Ukrainian border.
The minister noted that Kiev and Washington “have complete mutual understanding on the issue of security assessments” and added that Ukraine “takes a very balanced position, is not going to provoke anyone and not do anything that could serve as an excuse for escalation on the part of the Russian Federation.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry denied reports of a number of Western media that Russia was allegedly pulling troops to the border with Ukraine. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is moving troops within its territory and at its own discretion. According to him, this does not threaten anyone and should not worry anyone. Russia has repeatedly denied accusations of “aggressive actions” by the West and Ukraine, claiming that it does not threaten anyone, and statements about “Russian aggression” are used as an excuse to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders.