WASHINGTON – With Russian troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border, Ukraine’s top diplomat said Sunday that the threat of war was “becoming higher.”
“The Ukraine government is trying to use all the peaceful diplomatic means and diplomatic means to stop Russians but the people are also ready to defend their homeland,” Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia said on ABC’s “This Week.”
He blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the escalating tension.
“Putin himself is not talking to the rest of the world, he doesn’t want to listen to the world, he doesn’t want to respond on the arguments, Ukrainian arguments … to deescalate situation and stop invasion,” said Deshchytsia.
“We don’t know what Putin has in his mind and what will be his decision. That’s why this situation is becoming even more explosive than it used to be a week ago,” he said.
The buildup of Russian troops stretches along most of Ukraine’s eastern border, according to reports.
Deshchytsia said that Ukraine troops have so far shown “restraint” in the face of Russian aggression.
In Crimea, which Russia has moved to annex from Ukraine, shots were fired Saturday when Pro-Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian air force base.
Russian forces have been seizing Ukrainian military facilities for several days in the Black Sea peninsula, which voted a week ago to secede and join Russia.
Deshchytsia said that if Russian troops cross the eastern border it would be “difficult to ask … the Ukrainians who live in there not to respond on this military invasion.”
“We are trying to use all the diplomatic measures and all the economic, financial and other sanctions, visa sanctions, to stop Russians not to do this,” he said. “But it’s very difficult to keep people restrained and they are patriots of their homeland and would be difficult for them just simply sit or stay and look at Russia invading their country.”