Russia military chief warns Ukraine against attacking rebels

By DASHA LITVINOVA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s apical subject serviceman connected Thursday sternly warned neighboring Ukraine against trying to reclaim power implicit separatist areas by force, saying that Moscow volition “suppress” immoderate specified attempt.

The connection by Gen. Valery Gerasimov, main of the Russian military’s General Staff, comes amid soaring tensions implicit a Russian unit buildup adjacent the borderline with Ukraine that stoked Ukrainian and Western fears of a imaginable invasion.

A elder Russian diplomat doubled down connected Gerasimov’s informing by saying that the nonaccomplishment to stem the mounting tensions could propulsion Russia and the West to a redux of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that enactment the satellite connected the verge of a atomic war.

Tension concisely roseate aboriginal Thursday erstwhile Russia’s Federal Security Service said a Ukrainian navy vessel was heading toward the Kerch Strait betwixt the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, ignoring Russian seashore defender vessels’ signals. The FSB charged that maneuvering by the Ukrainian vessel Donbas jeopardized navigation safety. The bureau reported aboriginal that the vessel changed people and sailed distant from the Kerch Strait.

The Ukrainian subject dismissed the Russian claims, saying the Donbas didn’t travel anyplace adjacent to immoderate “sensitive” areas and was present heading backmost to its base. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov denounced the Russian study arsenic “manipulations,” expressing astonishment that Moscow saw the unarmed vas arsenic a threat.

Moscow demands that each ships passing done the constrictive strait that separates the Russia-annexed Crimea from Russia’s Taman Peninsula notify Russian authorities, citing the request to guarantee the information of navigation.

In November 2018, Russian seashore defender ships opened occurrence connected 3 Ukrainian ships adjacent the strait and past seized them. Ukraine insisted the vessels were successful planetary waters erstwhile Russia intercepted them.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin successful a video telephone Tuesday that the West would respond with bruising economical sanctions that would inflict acute symptom connected Moscow if it invades Ukraine. At the aforesaid time, Biden made it wide Wednesday that U.S. troops wouldn’t beryllium sent to Ukraine to face the Russians, and announced aboriginal talks betwixt the U.S., its apical NATO allies and Russia to code immoderate of Moscow’s information concerns.

Russia has rejected Ukrainian and Western claims of plotting an onslaught and described them arsenic a cover-up for a imaginable effort by Ukraine to retake the rebel-held areas. Ukraine has denied specified plans.

On Thursday, Gerasimov reinforced Moscow’s informing to Ukraine not to effort to usage unit to reclaim power of the east, saying that “any provocations by Ukrainian authorities to settee the Donbas problems by unit volition beryllium suppressed.”

U.S. quality officials accidental Russia has stationed astir 70,000 troops adjacent its borderline with Ukraine and has begun readying for a imaginable penetration arsenic soon arsenic aboriginal adjacent year.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told a property briefing successful Stockholm that “President Putin would look a terrible economical response, a terrible diplomatic effect from the planetary community” if helium launches an onslaught connected Ukraine. “I don’t deliberation Russia wants those consequences, I don’t deliberation it volition assistance everyone, particularly astatine this clip with COVID, for these things to play out,” helium added.

Speaking to overseas subject attaches, Gerasimov dismissed Western concerns astir the Russian subject buildup, arguing that Moscow is escaped to deploy its troops wherever it likes connected its territory and calling the assertion of a imaginable Russian penetration “a lie.”

He charged that Ukraine is to blasted for escalating tensions successful its war-torn eastbound concern heartland, known arsenic Donbas, by deploying caller weapons there, including U.S.-supplied Javelin anti-tank missiles and Turkish drones.

Russia and Ukraine person been locked successful a bitter tug-of-war since 2014, erstwhile Moscow annexed the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula and threw its enactment down a separatist insurgency successful eastbound Ukraine that has killed much than 14,000 people. Ukraine and the West accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to backmost the separatists, which Moscow has repeatedly denied.

Gerasimov complained astir NATO’s increasing beingness adjacent Russian borders and the expanding fig and scope of drills by confederation troops. He peculiarly noted an summation successful patrol flights by U.S. strategical bombers adjacent Russian territory, saying they practiced launching cruise missiles astatine targets successful Russia.

In remarks that followed up connected Putin’s propulsion for Western information guarantees to preclude NATO’s enlargement to Ukraine and different ex-Soviet neighbors, Gerasimov said Moscow is unfastened to discussions connected European and planetary information to “de-escalate tensions and summation the level of communal trust.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov besides voiced anticipation that the U.S. and its NATO allies would perceive to Moscow’s information concerns and prosecute successful meaningful discussions.

“It chiefly refers to refraining from subject activities adjacent our borders and the improvement of subject and military-technical beingness successful those territories,” Ryabkov said during a sheet treatment connected planetary affairs.

He emphasized that Russia wants legally-binding guarantees of its security, noting that Western powers broke verbal promises — fixed to Moscow successful the aboriginal 1990s — that NATO wouldn’t grow eastward.

“There is simply a heavy situation successful the Euro-Atlantic portion that is fraught with a imaginable conflict,” Ryabkov said, adding that a contention akin successful scope to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis betwixt the U.S. and the Soviet Union couldn’t beryllium excluded.

The Cuban Missile Crisis erupted erstwhile the Soviet Union deployed its missiles to Cuba and the U.S. imposed a naval blockade of the island. U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet person Nikita Khrushchev agreed to defuse tensions by making a woody for Moscow to retreat its missiles successful speech for Washington’s pledge not to invade Cuba and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey.

“If the different broadside doesn’t get it and it continues similar it goes now, the logic of developments could pb america to abruptly waking up to thing similar that,” Ryabkov. “It whitethorn easy travel to that. It would correspond the nonaccomplishment of diplomacy, but determination is inactive clip to effort to scope agreements based connected communal sense.”

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Pan Pylas successful London contributed to this report.