Ukraine fears attack as Putin masses tanks close to border

Moscow has also sent short-range ballistic missiles, according to the Janes defence intelligence group.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visit the troops at the frontline near Zolote, Lugansk, on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Russia has moved troops, tanks and heavy artillery to a new base about 240km from the Ukrainian border, stoking fears of a military offensive.

Moscow has also sent short-range ballistic missiles, according to the Janes defence intelligence group.

It is thought to be Russia’s biggest show of force in the area since 2015, when Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists signed a peace deal to end fighting in the eastern Donbas region. At least 10 Ukrainian personnel have died during a recent rise in hostilities.

Ruslan Khomchak, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, said last week that Russia had amassed 25,000 troops in the border regions of Bryansk, Rostov and Voronezh, as well as in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Russia has expressed concerns about a potential Ukrainian assault on separatist-held territories within its borders. A senior Kremlin official warned on Thursday night that any attack could lead to the destruction of Ukraine as an independent state. “This would be the beginning of the end of Ukraine,” Dmitri Kozak, deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, said.

Mr Kozak said Russia could move to protect its citizens in Donbas if Ukraine tried to recapture the breakaway regions. Moscow has handed out at least 200,000 Russian passports to residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic since 2019. It claims that any Russian servicemen in east Ukraine are there “on holiday”.

The newly deployed Russian forces are massing in a camp near the southwestern city of Voronezh, according to images posted by the Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian investigative group. Number plates indicate that the vehicles came from hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.

The Voronezh region does not border either separatist-held territory, making it an implausible base for operations in Donbas. “It is obvious that the disposition of Russian forces, at least in the Voronezh region, is more offensive than defensive in nature,” the CIT said.

Analysts at Janes also identified TOS-1A thermobaric multiple rocket launchers at the camp. They said a similar military build-up was under way in the Krasnodar region, south of Rostov.

President Putin told Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in a call yesterday (Thursday) that Ukraine was raising tensions. President Zelensky of Ukraine has urged Nato to admit his country quickly.

The Times