Putin sends 20,000 troops to beef up Russian rebels in bloody Ukraine civil war
VLADIMIR Putin has deployed an extra 20,000 soldiers to the frontline of Ukraine’s civil war, as temperatures and hopes of a lasting ceasefire continue to plummet.
By TOM BATCHELOR
Express.co.uk
Fri, Dec 11, 2015
The fresh deployment takes the number of Russian troops in the region to 70,000 – a move Ukraine’s president described as blatant “aggression” aimed at causing further unrest.
The fighting force is stationed in the east of the war-scarred country, where fierce battles between government backed rebels and Russian-backed separatists have claimed the lives of more than 9,000 in the 20-month long conflict.
Petro Poroshenko attacked the Kremlin for using bombing raids in Syria as cover to “divert the world’s attention from ongoing aggression in Ukraine”.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Joe Biden warned Russia that Western pressure on Moscow would only increase if Russian “aggression” against neighbouring Ukraine continued.
During a visit to Kiev, he said: “If Russian aggression persists, the cost imposed on Moscow will continue to rise.”
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March 2014 and has been accused of sending pro-Kremlin fighters to carve out their own region in the ex-Soviet state.
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