While the handover between Russians and Westerners continues at the diplomatic level, the Kremlin has not recalled the troops stationed at the Ukrainian border since October.
New satellite images taken by a private American company published on Thursday 23 December show, on the contrary, that reinforcements have arrived recently, reports Reuters.
On one of these new photos dated December 13, we can see a base in Crimea, a region annexed by Russia in 2014, filled with hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks.
However, a satellite image of the same location taken last October showed that the base was half empty, said Reuters, which specifies that it was unable to independently verify the photographs taken by the company Maxar Technologies.
Another satellite image showing Russian troops at the Pogonovo training camp near Voronezh, Russia on December 21.
Maxar Technologies / Handout via REUTERS
Maxar specifies for his part that a new unit, made up of several hundred armored vehicles including infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery and air defense equipment, had reached the Russian garrison. .
"Over the past month, our high-resolution satellite images have observed a number of new Russian deployments in Crimea as well as in several training areas in western Russia, along the outskirts of the Ukrainian border." , the Colorado-based space technology company said in a statement.
"No critical accumulation"
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, however on Friday minimized the risk of an imminent escalation, adding that, according to Kiev estimates, the number of Russian soldiers around Ukraine had only increased slightly, from 93,000 in October to around 104,000 today.
“We don't see any critical build-up,” noted Oleksiy Danilov.
Read also Does Russia have the means to invade Ukraine?
The official, however, urged the West to export more arms to his country.
“Providing us with weapons to defend ourselves is the number one issue.
No short-lived promises and sanctions, ”thundered Oleksiy Danilov.
“When our country is destroyed, against whom are you going to impose sanctions?
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For more than a month, the West has accused Russia of having massed around 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border with a view to military intervention and has been issuing warnings to the Kremlin, which denies any bellicose intention.
Many observers consider that Russia hopes in this way to put pressure on the West to obtain guarantees that there will be no extension of NATO to eastern Europe.
"There must be no advance of NATO towards the east, the ball is in their court, they must answer us", estimated Vladimir Poutine Thursday in his traditional press conference at the end of the year.
