Ukraine may, with US support, organize provocations with the deaths of its servicemen and the loss of equipment in order to launch military actions against Crimea, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said.
With Washington's support, statements from the Ukrainian side about plans to establish control over Crimean territory by force are becoming more frequent, and Ukraine's new military security strategy directly defines Russia as a military enemy, Patrushev recalled, speaking Wednesday in Sevastopol at a meeting on ensuring national security on the peninsula.
"Provocations organized by Ukraine, with US support, with deaths of servicemen and loss of military equipment could be a pretext for military action," the secretary of the Security Council warned.
"Flirting with the new US administration, Kiev is ready to plunge the country into military adventures, regardless of the further deterioration of the economic situation in the country," Patrushev said.
Western countries led by the United States, while claiming to be uninterested in fomenting conflict around Crimea, are in fact pushing Kiev into provocations and strengthening the Ukrainian army, Patrushev said.
At a meeting Wednesday in Sevastopol on national security in Crimea, he noted that the West, led by the United States, by urging Moscow not to take security measures in the border area, is "pushing Ukraine into provocations." "They pay lip service to their lack of interest in fomenting the conflict, while in fact they allocate funds to arm the Ukrainian army, build up the presence of ships in the Black Sea, plan a series of joint exercises, supply lethal weapons, train Ukrainian servicemen, strengthen reconnaissance activities in the Crimean direction using aircraft and electronic means," Patrushev enumerated.
"In recent days alone, more than five military transport aircraft have arrived on Ukrainian territory from US air bases," the secretary of the Security Council noted.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS