FSB: Ukraine Forces Tried Crimea Incursion

Mr Putin said there was no point in further negotiations with Ukraine and called on the U.S. and European countries to put pressure on Kiev to change its behaviour.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said in a statement that the FSB’s assertions look like an attempt to justify “acts of aggression” and the redeployment of military units to Crimea. On the same day, Crimean Tatar activists in the region reported seeing large numbers of military vehicles moving into the border towns of Dzhankoy and Armyansk.

“This is a very unsafe game”, he said, saying security measures on the peninsula would be increased following the attack.

The Ukrainian security service (SBU) have denied the Russian accusations Wednesday, saying: “Ukraine has no ambition to recover by force the territories that have been taken from it”.

“The aim of this subversive activity and terrorist acts was to destabilize the socio-political situation in the region ahead of preparations and the holding of elections”, the FSB said in a statement.

“In fact, our security services prevented an incursion into the territory by a sabotage-reconnaissance group from Ukraine’s defence ministry”, Putin told Russian news agencies.

Bombs, ammunition and mines had been found in the area where “terrorist attacks” had been foiled, it said.

“There were losses on the Russian side, with two servicemen killed. An FSB officer died as a result of a firefight during the arrest”.

Even in the context of ongoing tensions between Ukraine and Russian Federation, the accusations made by Moscow against Kiev Wednesday, August 10, appear particularly serious and unprecedented.

Russia also said that “diversionary terrorist groups” from special forces divisions within Ukraine’s defense ministry attempted two other attacks on Monday night that were thwarted by Russian security and defense officials.

Russian security said it had also dismantled a Ukrainian spy network inside Crimea.

But it said road traffic was halted earlier this week and border guards appeared to be on “heightened alert”.

Renewed tensions around Crimea follow a surge of violence between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces fight nightly battles despite a nominal ceasefire.

This week, online activists have published videos on social networks of Russian trains carrying army vans to the Kerch strait, the waterway that connects Crimea with mainland Russia.