Meanwhile
washington has warned russia that the
u.s will respond decisively if russia
invades ukraine.
Over the past 24 hours ukraine's troops
recorded three ceasefire violations by
the russian occupation forces where
weapons prescribed by the minsk
agreements were used. That's according to
the joint forces operation press service, according to the reports.
"The
russian-backed forces twice opened fire
using millimeter mortars and 122
millimeter artillery toward Prichy Pilupka and also near krimsk, the enemy
fired 82 millimeter mortars, grenade
launchers of various systems and large
caliber machine guns," the report said.
"There are no casualties among joint
forces as a result of enemy attacks," the
report noted.
Ukrainian troops returned
fire without using any weapons banned by
the minsk deal, forcing the enemy to
cease shelling, thanks to defense efforts
ukrainian units held their ground.
The
reports added that the joint forces keep
monitoring the situation in the zone of
hostilities, remaining ready to deter and
repel russia's armed
aggression.
Surprisingly the attack came
just one day after CIT reported an
increase in the number of russian troops
near the region.
As reported russia continues to send its
troops to the border with ukraine as the
earlier discovered camps are growing, new
camps are set up, while tanks and housers
are joined by sophisticated air defense
systems.
The number of russian troops along the
border with ukraine continues to grow. Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) a group
of independent russian investigators
reported that as new virtual summits and
talks with the u.s, NATO and this are
being announced, russian forces keep
arriving into border regions.
Open source data shows how the earlier
discovered camps are growing, new camps
are set up while tanks and howitzers are
joined by sophisticated air defense
systems, the investigator said in its
reports.
According to CIT the russian forces are
being concentrated in various areas
including clincy and plymouth in
biryansk region, less than 50 kilometers
and 10 kilometers respectively from the
ukrainian border. Apart from the staging areas that were
discovered earlier.
At least one new area
has been pointed out at the post oily
devery training ground in Kursk region. In addition an increase of vehicle
concentrations is also noted near value
wiki. The elder region 10 kilometers from
the ukrainian border. There has also been an increase of
russian forces presence in crimea.
In late november the head of ukraine's
defense intelligence agency told the
military times that russia would launch
a full-scale invasion by late january or
early february.
However there's still a good news for
ukraine. U.S and NATO will respond decisively if
russia moves to invade its pro-western
neighbor, the white house has said in a
statement.
US President Joe Biden on sunday
reassured his ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelinski that washington and
its allies will respond decisively if
russia moves to invade its pro-western
neighbor, the white house said in a
statement.
The two men spoke on the phone days
after biden held a second conversation
in a month with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid tensions on russia's
border with ukraine, where russia has
masked some 100,000 soldiers.
"President Biden made clear that the
united states and its allies and
partners will respond decisively if
russia further invades ukraine," white house spokeswoman Jen Psaki said
in a statement following the call.
Biden and Zielinski discussed
preparations for a series of upcoming
diplomatic meetings to address the
crisis, according to the white house.
Ukrainian president vlad number zelinski
tweeted afterwards that he appreciated
the united states unwavering support and
that the call proves the special nature
of the two countries relationship.
According to Al Jazeera high-ranking u.s
and russian officials are due to sit
down on january 9th and 10th in geneva
to discuss the crisis, russia NATO council talks at a meeting of the
organization for security and
cooperation in Europe, OSCE are also due
to take place.
Biden has said he told putin it was
important for the russians to take steps
towards easing the crisis before those
meetings. Discussing the call with putin on friday
biden said, "i'm not going to negotiate
here in public, but we made it clear he
cannot, i'll emphasize cannot, invade
ukraine".
The u.s leader added, in remarks to
reporters during a holiday stay in
delaware that he had made it clear to President Putin that we will have severe
sanctions, we will increase our presence
in europe with NATO allies if russia
invades ukraine.
On the other hand putin's foreign
affairs adviser told reporters last week
that Putin warned biden that pursuit of
sanctions could lead to a complete
rupture of relations between our
countries and russia west relations will
be severely damaged.
Russia seized the crimea region from
ukraine in 2014 and is accused of
fomenting a pro-russian separatist war
in the countries east which erupted that
same year.
Kremlin officials have
stressed they want guarantees that any
future expansion of NATO must exclude
ukraine and other former soviet
countries and have also demanded that
the military alliance remove offensive
weaponry from countries in the region.
