Ukraine crisis: Russia begins military exercise

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Russian tank during a military exercise in September 2020 (archive image)

Photo: DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP

Three thousand Russian soldiers began military exercises on Tuesday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

These are said to be exercises with live ammunition, including T-72B3 tanks and BMP-2 armored personnel carriers.

The agency relied on the Russian military for its information.

Accordingly, the exercises would take place near the Belarusian border, but also in the Voronezh, Belgorod and Brjansk regions, i.e. not far from the border with Ukraine.

More than 100,000 soldiers

According to US findings, Russia has sent more than 100,000 soldiers to the border with Ukraine.

According to a report in the New York Times, there are now also combat aircraft, transport helicopters and helicopters.

In view of the massive deployment of Russian troops, the West is concerned that Moscow is preparing a new invasion of the neighboring country after the annexation of Crimea.

Moscow categorically rejects this.

At the same time, however, the Kremlin is demanding agreements from the USA and NATO that prohibit the eastward expansion of NATO and the establishment of US military bases in states of the former Soviet sphere of influence.

This in turn is rejected by several NATO members.

more on the subject

• Media report: Russia is moving helicopters and planes to the Ukrainian border

• Russia's troop deployment on the Ukrainian border: party mood and fear of war Lina Verschwele reports from Kiev

The US ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, said on Tuesday that Russia is not seeing any “clear signals of de-escalation”.

"We think they have plans to move more troops forward."

First meeting in Geneva without a breakthrough

A meeting of American and Russian negotiators ended on Monday in Geneva after almost eight hours.

As expected, there was no breakthrough in the negotiations.

The US would have offered disarmament talks, among other things, if Russia took the same steps, said US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

Such talks could take place, for example, within the framework of the Russia-NATO Council, which will meet in Brussels on Wednesday.

Her Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov assured that Russia had "no intentions to attack Ukraine" and described the situation as "not hopeless".

"The conversation was difficult, but very professional, profound and concrete," said Ryabkov.

Moscow had also made it clear that progress had to be made with regard to essential demands.

A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council is scheduled in Brussels on Wednesday - the first in two and a half years.

Thereafter there will be talks in Vienna on Thursday within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

slü / dpa / Reuters