Russian military says advanced air defence system delivered to Crimea

THE Russian military has announced the delivery of new air defence missiles to Crimea, in a move scheduled before the latest tension with Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: AP.

THE Russian military said on Friday it had delivered its most advanced S-400 air defence system to Crimea after pledging last month to deploy it to the disputed region.

Russia’s southern military district said in a statement carried by state news agencies that troops in Crimea had “received the modern S-400 ‘Triumph’ air defence system” authorities.

The communiqué coincides with a surge of tension between Ukraine and Russia over the occupied peninsula.

Ukrainian troops near Crimea and along the frontline with pro-Russian separatists in two other eastern regions have been placed on high alert, and Kiev’s military intelligence said “the enemy is planning large-scale provocative actions”.

It also accused Russia of increasing its forces, replenishing munitions and building up military hardware in the war-scarred east of Ukraine.

Picture: Russian defence ministry.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev followed up angry accusations from President Vladimir Putin by branding Kiev’s alleged raids in Crimea “a crime against the Russian state and the people of Russia”.

He warned that Putin could sever diplomatic ties with Ukraine if “there remains no other way to influence the situation”, Russian news wires reported.

Ukraine’s security service has raised its terrorist threat level to the highest around Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, where pro-Russian rebels have been fighting government troops for more than two years.

Kiev’s alleged attempts at armed incursions into Crimea saw a Russian security service officer killed in clashes while arresting “terrorists” at the weekend, Moscow said.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia could break diplomatic ties with Ukraine over reported security incidents in Crimea. Picture: AP.

Ukraine’s national security council chief Oleksandr Turchynov on Friday dismissed the claims, saying Moscow was trying to cover up deadly shootouts between Russian forces “who traditionally abuse alcohol.”

In a move that was likely to add fuel to the dispute Russian state TV aired footage of the interrogations of several alleged infiltrators the authorities claimed to have captured and confessed to having worked for Ukraine’s military intelligence.

Kiev had previously said one of the men being held in Russia had been abducted and was a “hostage”.

The international community has tried to tamp down the rising tensions between Moscow and Kiev over fears that it could kill off a stalled peace process for eastern Ukraine signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February 2015.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Picture: AP.

During a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday, Ukraine asked Russia to provide evidence to back its accusations, which President Petro Poroshenko had called “senseless and cynical.” Putin has said a mooted meeting with Poroshenko and mediators German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande at next month’s G20 summit in China was now “senseless”.

A German government official told AFP on Thursday that Putin’s rejection of a four-way meeting on Ukraine was a “sign that Russia is less and less counting on a political solution to the crisis.” The French foreign ministry said that minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that France and Germany would continue efforts to implement the Minsk agreements, which include the four countries.

The United States also called on both sides to show restraint, with State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau saying that Washington was “extremely concerned.”