Ukraine announces troop call-up
January 20, 2015
The 50,000 volunteers and reservists announced Tuesday will deploy over three months. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized plans by Ukraine's government to bolster forces in the country's east.
The additional forces reflect Ukraine's attempts to defend against what officials call Russian "aggression." The government has accused its neighbor of sending at least 700 troops across the border on Monday alone.
Russia's Defense Ministry calls the charges "absolute nonsense." Kremlin officials accuse Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of rejecting a peace proposal submitted by Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The conflict has left more than 4,800 people dead since April despite a ceasefire agreed to in Belarus in September. A new truce reached in December swiftly unraveled after the New Year. In fact, the confrontation has intensified at Donetsk airport and in the surrounding areas.
A government shell hit a bus stop Tuesday in northwestern Donetsk, killing two civilians and seriously wounding eight. In all, at least six people died on Tuesday.
'A threatening situation'
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has invited his counterparts from France, Russia and Ukraine to a meeting in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss the conflict. The resurgence in fighting during the last few days led "to a threatening situation," Steinmeier said Tuesday in Berlin. Last week, the German foreign minister had said the conflict in Ukraine was "nowhere near contained."
"The chief aim now is to prevent a further deterioration of the military conflict and a renewed political escalation between Kyiv and Moscow," Steinmeier said on Tuesday. "This is worth every effort."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that his country must strengthen its armed forces to protect its sovereignty against potential threats. Putin's comments on Tuesday reinforced his commitment to an expensive program to modernize Russia's armed forces, which the Finance Ministry plans to exclude from any budget cuts forced on the government by the country's growing economic malaise.
"We will continue to strengthen our armed forces and military organizations as a whole by making them modern, mobile, well-equipped and capable of performing their main task: to neutralize risks and political, potential threats to the security of our country," Putin told a meeting of Russia's industry commission on Tuesday.
mkg/bw (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)