Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is conerned by the fact that gunmen continue to get into Ukraine from Russia and engage in terrorist activity in eastern regions, and the ministry demands that this be stopped.
“[We] demand that the Russian Federation immediately stop organizing terrorist activity, instigating and helping terrorist organizations operating in eastern regions of Ukraine, including the practice of sending Russian armed sabotage groups to Ukrainian territory,” reads the statement by Foreign Ministry’s Information Policy Department that was posted on Monday.
According to the ministry, they are especially concerned by certain statements by Russian official representatives, particularly the statement by head of the Chechen republic Ramzan Kadyrov, confirming the intention to continue reinforcing terrorists with Russian special detachment units. In this case, Russia is violating the obligations it took upon itself in a range of international contractual and legal instruments regarding warfare and preventing international terrorism.
“Sending well-trained and armed Russian mercenaries to Ukrainian territory from Russia can’t be assessed in any other way than the export of terrorism to Ukrainian territory. In addition to demonstrational training exercise of Russian Armed Forces conducted near the Russian-Ukrainian state border, laying antipersonnel and antitank land mines on Ukrainian territory along the line of the location of Russian occupational forces in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are intentional and severe violations of principles of not using violence, not threatening to use violence, not interfering with internal affairs and respecting territorial sovereignty established by the UN Charter,” reads the statement by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.
According to the ministry, Russia’s proper cooperation within existing contractual and legal instruments and mechanisms would have saved the lives of both Ukrainian soldiers and the majority of the Russian citizens who came to Ukraine illegally and are engaging in terrorist activity.
