Interfax: Russian defence officials deny US claims of Russian soldiers in Ukraine

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(Interfax – March 5, 2015)

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoliy Antonov has criticized statements by American officials that thousands of Russian military personnel are operating in Ukraine.

“Then what about the statement of the chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff, Gen [Viktor] Muzhenko, that there are no armed forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine?” Antonov said at a news briefing on Thursday [5 March] commenting on US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland’s statement about “thousands of Russian military personnel in Ukraine”.

“Why did they say 12,000? Why not 20,000, or 25,000? Why be so modest? No-one can supposedly respond anyway?” Antonov said.

“So, who should we believe? Someone who is responsible for his country’s national security, military security (Muzhenko – Interfax), or Madam Nuland who lives in Washington?” Antonov said.

Yesterday Victoria Nuland said that she has information that thousands of Russian military personnel are in Ukraine. “I would say it’s in the thousands and thousands,” she said in the Congress responding to a question about how many Russian military personnel are in eastern Ukraine in the opinion of the American side. “Since December, Russia has transferred hundreds of pieces of military equipment, including tanks, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery,” Nuland added.

On 29 January, the chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff Viktor Muzhenko said during a meeting with foreign military attaches in Kiev that the Ukrainian army was not fighting against regular Russian units in Donbass. “Today we have facts of participation of Russian military servicemen, citizens of the Russian Federation in the illegal armed formations in combat operations. We are not engaged in combat operations against regular subunits of the Russian army,” Muzhenko said.

[Russian pro-Kremlin, privately-owned, rolling news station LifeNews TV showed Antonov saying: “I know about such statements by American counterparts, I know about statements by the leadership of the United States of America regarding possible sanctions, which they are making left and right there, telling everyone at every corner. These statements by Victoria Nuland and the general you mentioned, about thousands of Russian military personnel allegedly present in Ukraine. Why 12,000? Why be so modest? Why did not they say 20 [thousand] or 25 [thousand]? No-one can supposedly respond anyway. But then what about the recent statement of the chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff, Gen Muzhenko, who said that there are no armed forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine?”.

On the same day, the Russian Ministry of Defence spokesman Maj-Gen Igor Konashenkov denied a statement by Lt-Gen Ben Hodges, Commander of the US Armed Forces in Europe, about 12,000 Russian troops in Ukraine, privately-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN reported.

“We did not hear anything original. General Hodges’ knowledge of Ukraine, let alone of what is happening in its south-east, leaves much to be desired, as he himself admitted recently,” Konashenkov said.

“It is enough to recall the ‘sensational’ statements of General Hodges two weeks ago, about a threat from Crimea to Mariupol, which until recently he sincerely believed was a ‘Black Sea port’. I can definitely say that for such ‘deep’ knowledge of a theatre of military operations, for which he is responsible by virtue of his position, any commander of the Russian Armed Forces would be sacked the next day. The same goes for General Hodges’ apparently unsuccessful attempt to impress the female half of the US Department of State with his statement about 12,000 Russian military personnel allegedly present in Ukraine. For official female representatives of this department, who are far from military realities, it is easy to refer to such ‘authoritative’ estimates – the size is of great significance for them. I would only like to fill another gaping hole in Hodges’ knowledge. The number that he pointed out, 12,000 people, is a serious army group with thousands of pieces of equipment, which cannot be hidden under snow in the narrow patch of ‘individual districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions’. As regards the allegedly insufficient level of training of militia fighters to control ‘complex’ military equipment, in which Hodges includes artillery systems and armoured vehicles captured from Ukrainian troops, this too will require a literacy class. The only modern and unfamiliar thing for Donbass militia fighters, who completed two-year military service in the Soviet army or the Ukrainian army, is Western-made and especially American-made weapons found in large quantities in Donetsk airport and Debaltseve. Attention, a question: How it got there? Maybe General Ben Hodges should publicly fill this gap in information too?” Konashenkov was quoted as saying.]

 

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