Ukrainian military. File photoKYIV, Feb 7Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov assessed the likelihood of a significant escalation of the situation around Ukraine at the moment as low. According to him, the Ukrainian side is doing everything to control the situation with military exercises in the Russian Federation and Belarus. Reznikov noted that Ukraine is acting in a planned and coordinated manner to exclude «any provocations», the territorial defense forces are being trained, exercises are being conducted with defense weapons received as part of international assistance. «We have full information and a realistic assessment of the situation. Now many different hypothetical assessments and forecasts. Especially in the foreign media. Some have already announced the Russian invasion, which, however, happened eight years ago. I want to reiterate what I have said more than once before. The duty of the military is to calculate all possible scenarios, even the most are bad, and do everything they can to neutralize threats. This is happening now. The likelihood of a significant escalation as of today continues to be assessed as low, «the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense quotes the words of the minister. Kiev and Western states have recently been constantly claiming alleged strengthening of «aggressive actions» by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied such accusations, saying that it does not threaten anyone and does not intend to attack anyone, and claims of «Russian aggression» are used as an excuse to place more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the West's statements about «Russian aggression» and the possibility of helping Kiev defend itself against it are both ridiculous and dangerous. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is moving troops within its territory and at its own discretion. According to him, this does not threaten anyone and should not bother anyone.The Rada spoke about the «flight» of the population from Kiev because of the «invasion» of RussiaAs Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. Since 2014, the NATO countries, led by the United States, have been supplying weapons to Ukraine and training its military, which directly violates the Minsk agreements and negatively affects the settlement in Donbass. In addition to the Americans, Great Britain, Canada, France, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia participate in deliveries totaling billions of dollars. In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, which declared on independence after the coup in Kiev in February 2014. According to the latest UN data, about 13 thousand people became victims of the conflict. The issue of resolving the situation in Donbass is being discussed, including during meetings of the contact group. However, even after the ceasefire agreements, skirmishes continue, in the DPR and LPR they announced shelling of residential areas by Ukrainian heavy artillery. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Kiev does not comply with the Minsk agreements and drags out negotiations to resolve the conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Kiev sent half of the entire personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine to the Donbass. Moscow expressed concern about the transfer of military equipment from NATO countries to the Russian borders and the increase in the number of Western instructors in the Donbass. -for Ukraine
