Ukrainian army on high alert due to the threat of Russian invasion 3004144

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Defence & Security News - Ukraine

 
 
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 11:59 AM
 
Ukrainian army on high alert due to the threat of Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian army is on high alert due to the “threat of a Russian invasion,” Ukraine’s acting President Aleksandr Turchinov said after admitting that the government in Kiev cannot control the situation in the east of the country.
     
The Ukrainian army is on high alert due to the “threat of a Russian invasion,” Ukraine’s acting President Aleksandr Turchinov said after admitting that the government in Kiev cannot control the situation in the east of the country.
Ukrainian soldiers sit on an airborne combat vehicle near Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine.

     

“I am going back to the real threat that Russia would unleash a continental war against Ukraine. Our armed forces have been put on full alert,” Turchinov told Wednesday, April 30, 2014, a council of heads of Ukrainian regions in Kiev, as news agencies report.

Earlier on Tuesday, the acting president said in a televised address that the situation in the east of the country “demonstrated inaction, helplessness and sometimes treason” and pledged to sack many officers in eastern regions of Ukraine.

Turchinov was elected a new speaker of the parliament and appointed by the MPs to act as the country’s acting president after the previous leader, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted following violent street protests in February.

The new authorities in Kiev are failing to deal with a wave of protests against them centered in the Donetsk Region of eastern Ukraine.

Despite announcing an “anti-terrorist operation” and amassing a large number of troops and heavy weapons in the region, the national government has failed to prevent the continued seizures of buildings there and some other eastern regions of Ukraine.

There are indications that Kiev does not have enough loyal troops to deliver on its promised protest crackdown. On several occasions the troops sent against activists simply defected, surrendering their weapons and armored vehicles.