Russia has deployed ten more fighter jets to the Crimean Peninsula as the tension between Moscow and Kiev is exacerbated following remarks by the country’s foreign minister over Ukraine plans for ‘armed provocation.’
Russia sends more fighter jets to Crimea as tension with Ukraine intensifies
18 Dec 2018 - 14:20
Russia has deployed ten more fighter jets to the Crimean Peninsula as the tension between Moscow and Kiev is exacerbated following remarks by the country’s foreign minister over Ukraine plans for ‘armed provocation.’
Russian news agency Interfax said on Monday that Moscow had sent more than 10 Sukhoi SU-27 and SU-30 fighter jets to the overhauled Belbek air base in Crimea as part of a "permanent deployment."
The announcement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview that Ukraine was preparing an "armed provocation with Russia on the border with Crimea during the last ten days of December."
The state-run TASS news agency quoted Lavrov as saying that Moscow would not allow the Ukrainian government to act on those plans and "they will regret it."
The top Russian diplomat also said that his country "will not wage war against Ukraine," and accused Kiev of having “Nazi characteristics.”
"We are not fighting the Ukrainian regime," Lavrov said. "It is Ukrainian citizens living in Donbass who are fighting against the Ukrainian regime, which has full Nazi and neo-Nazi characteristics."
Crimea voted for reunification with Russia in 2014, following deep political changes in Kiev where a pro-Western movement staged weeks of street protests that led to the ouster of the pro-Russia government.
People in Crimea and in the industrial eastern territories of Ukraine, areas which are dominated by ethnic Russians, effectively refused to endorse the new administration in Kiev. Crimea decided to rejoin Russia in a referendum in March 2014 and two provinces in the east revolted by establishing self-declared republics.
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