Russia Says US Sending Military Personnel To Ukraine Front Lines
MOSCOW - Russian state run news RT has reported that the US is sending 'thousands of military personnel' to Ukrainian front lines.
RT says that there are as many as 10,000 'Western military instructors' on the front lines in Eastern Ukraine to train European soldiers and 'support fighting in Donbass'.
Maria Zakharova, who is a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the presence of foreign military is a sign that Ukraine is preparing for a confrontational solution to the standoff with the two 'self-declared breakaway republics' in the eastern Donbass region.
"The more instructors there are, the bigger Ukraine’s military budget" she stated. "The more arms they bring there, the more often we hear explosions, not only on the line of contact, but also right in the neighborhood of civilian infrastructure".
Zakharova said that the claims that the foreign trainers are in Ukraine to help deter Russian aggression is 'a lie' and amount 'not just to hypocrisy or double standards - this is a combination of blasphemy and mockery'.
She said that the foreign trainers in Ukraine 'are directly responsible for the events taking place in front of our eyes in the Donbass'.
"Instead of bringing an end to the civil war, which has now been going on for eight years, it seems that Kiev is readying itself for a forceful solution to the problems in Donbass” she stated.
She also said that statements put out by Ukrainian officials that insist they are trying to de-escalate the situation are 'false sounding' and 'a lie'.
The impact of Zakharova's statements however are diminished against satellite photo evidence that Russia is currently building what looks to be an invasion force near their shared border with Ukraine.