Russia Builds Up Army near Ukraine Border
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Russia is bolstering its military presence on its western border, sending tens of thousands of soldiers to newly built installations within easy striking distance of Ukraine.
The moves, which come as Moscow ratchets up confrontation over the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, are a centerpiece of a new military strategy the Kremlin says is meant to counter perceived threats from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Military analysts say the deployments appear to be an effort to build a more permanent and robust military posture around Ukraine, Russia’s West-leaning neighbor.
The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t respond to emailed questions.
US military officials, having closely monitored Russian movements of troops and equipment in the two years since Moscow’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, said they haven’t detected signs of an immediate threat. Any shift in Russian military posture reflects broader plans, a senior military official said Thursday.
The buildup on Ukraine’s frontier represents a significant shift. For years, the Russian-Ukrainian border was viewed by Moscow as little more than an administrative boundary. As late as 2009, Russia didn’t have a single large army unit along its 1,200-mile border with Ukraine. That changed with the 2014 revolution in Kiev and subsequent conflict in eastern Ukraine.
In May, Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said the army would create three new divisions to counter NATO, which in April announced it would send four battalions, or about 4,000 troops, to Poland and ex-Soviet Baltic countries.
