Ukrainian president warns of threat of 'full-scale war' with Russia
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned of the
threat of "full-scale war" and said Russia had sharply increased its
military presence on their shared border as tensions escalate between the
ex-Soviet neighbors, Channel News Asia reported Wednesday.
The crisis also threatened growing diplomatic
fallout with US President Donald Trump warning that he may cancel a
long-awaited summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the G20 summit
in Buenos Aires at the end of this week, but he told The Washington Post that
it would depend on the results of a report about the incident being prepared by
his national security advisers.
"Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't
even have the meeting," he said.
In Ukraine, Poroshenko warned that the clash at sea
could herald more drastic developments in the simmering Ukraine-Russia military
standoff.
"I don't want anyone to think this is fun and
games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," the
president said in an interview with national television.
The number of Russian units deployed along the
Ukraine-Russian border has "grown dramatically" while the number of
Russian tanks has tripled, Poroshenko said, citing intelligence reports but
giving no precise timescale for the buildup.
He spoke after Russian forces seized three of Kiev's
ships off the coast of Crimea on Sunday and captured 24 Ukrainian sailors.
