Ukrainian border guards put on high alert on Crimean border, in Donbas
The Ukrainian State Border Guard Service is taking a number of measures to fulfill the order issued by President Petro Poroshenko to put defense and security structures on the Crimean border and on the division line in Donbas on high alert.
"We are talking primarily about involving reserves, checking interaction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other Ukrainian law enforcement structures," Oleh Slobodian, spokesman for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He also said the combat readiness of the units and their readiness for actions will be checked.
It was reported earlier that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered that all units of the Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies stationed near the border of Kherson region and near the border with Crimea be put on alert.
"I held a session with the heads of law-enforcement structures and the Foreign Ministry. I ordered that all units in districts near the administrative border with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and along the entire contact line in Donbas be put on alert," Poroshenko said on his Twitter account on Thursday.
On August 10, the Russian Federal Security Service reported that two attempts to break into Crimea by "groups of saboteurs and terrorists" composed of members of special units of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry had been averted and that a Russian serviceman had been killed in the clash. The Federal Security Service also said "an agent network" of Ukrainian intelligence had been eliminated in the territory of Crimea and Ukrainians and Russians "who assisted in the preparation of the terrorist attacks" had been detained.
The Ukrainian defense and security structures, for their part, have denied the reports about Ukrainian saboteurs. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry also said the accusations made by Russia of attacks on the peninsula from mainland Ukraine are groundless.
