REUTERS
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russia resorts to camouflaging the activities of its troops, and thus hides the actual number of personnel and weapons involved, including the number of aircraft and helicopter flights.
Russia is ignoring proposals to allow access of inspection teams of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to a 25-kilometer zone along the border with Ukraine on the territory of Rostov region, which is closed by Russia for observation, according to the head of the Verification Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andriy Hudz.
"Of concern of the OSCE states is the presence of a significant number of Russian military units in Rostov region, especially in the 25-kilometer zone along the Ukrainian border, and their sudden build-up during the exercises. Russia ignores the proposals of Ukraine and other leading OSCE states to allow access of the OSCE inspection teams to this zone along the border with Ukraine on the territory of Rostov region, which is now closed by Russia, even for aerial observation," Andriy Hudz told a briefing on Tuesday, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
According to the military official, Russia systematically resorts to unpredictable military activities and actively uses gaps in the Vienna Document of 2011.
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"Russia uses sudden (undeclared) military exercises and exercises below thresholds as an instrument of foreign policy to demonstrate military force with a view to significantly affecting security and stability in the OSCE area. It resorts to camouflaging the activities of troops (forces) and their fragmentation, thus hiding the actual number of personnel and weapons involved, including the number of aircraft and helicopter flights," Hudz explained.
At the same time, Hudz has stressed that Ukraine demonstrates a high level of openness and transparency - since 2014, the OSCE states conducted 29 additional inspections under the Vienna Agreement of 2011. Now such an inspection is bein carried out by the United States, Denmark, Norway and Luxembourg. The multinational inspection team includes representatives from France, Canada, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.S., and Belgium.
Also, a permanent verification department has been established within the Joint Forces to monitor the availability of weapons and military equipment of military units of the Armed Forces and other military formations carrying out missions in the east of Ukraine that fall under the Minsk accords.