Khomchak says Russia-Belarus joint drills pose a potential threat.
The Russian Federation continues keeping its troops and military hardware near different sections of the border with Ukraine despite a statement by Russia's defense minister on the return of the forces to places of their permanent deployment.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak announced this at a meeting of the NATO Military Committee in the format with Ukraine.
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According to him, such a concentration of Russian troops (forces) near the Ukrainian borders has not been recorded since 2014-2015, when armed confrontation in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions were in the hot phase.
"Despite the statement of the minister of defense of the Russian Federation on the return of troops to places of permanent deployment, Russia continues to keep about 80,000 personnel and a significant amount of weapons and military equipment near various parts of the border with Ukraine. Ships and boats transferred to reinforce the Russian group from the Northern Fleet and the Caspian Flotilla also continue to be in the Azov-Black Sea region," Khomchak said.
According to estimates by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, this allows Russia to quickly increase the offensive capabilities of groups of its armed forces to carry out offensive actions against Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian military leadership does not rule out the possibility that Russia may also use the territory and infrastructure of other states to increase political and military pressure on Ukraine. In addition, a potential threat is the joint strategic exercises of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus 'Zapad 2021' ('West 2021') scheduled for September," he said.