Will Stewart and Tim Shipman
Ukraine warned last night that 80,000 Russian troops were massing on its borders and could invade – as world leaders told Vladimir Putin to back off.
A senior security chief in Kiev said Moscow could launch a full-scale invasion and Russian troops would be in the Ukrainian capital within ‘two or three hours’ of the order to advance.
Photographs of Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers close to Ukraine’s borders added to tensions.
Last night senior British officials told the Mail they had received reports about Russian troops massing on the border since Tuesday and were concerned by the show of force.
Grainy footage apparently shows Russian tanks on the way to the Donetsk region border
Heading to Ukraine? Armoured personnel carriers near Rostov in Russia
Crimean fishermen on a pier as a Russian naval vessel passes them in Sevastopol Bay
A Ukrainian sailor guards on the ship Ternopil as Russian guided missile destroyer Bespokoynyy sails nearby in Sevastopol Bay
British intelligence is unsure whether the movements are intended to back up the annexation of Crimea, preparation for an invasion or simply defensive.
Moscow’s show of force came as Ukraine’s new prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, met Barack Obama in the Oval Office and Nato continued military exercises in Poland.
On a day of rising tensions, G7 leaders, including David Cameron and Mr Obama, warned Russia not to annexe the Crimea after a referendum on Sunday in the province, which has been taken over by pro-Putin troops.
Their statement warns the Russian president ‘to cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea contrary to Ukrainian law and in violation of international law’ and threatens ‘further action’ if Moscow seizes Crimea.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Russian MPs who voted to use force in Ukraine and Kremlin officials behind the invasion would be hit with asset freezes and a travel ban to the European Union – most likely at a Brussels summit on Monday.
But the main concern of Western leaders is to deter Russia from seizing the rest of Eastern Ukraine.
On the move: Tanks pictured on the streets of Rostov in Russia
Military vehicles have been picture all over Russia’s border regions. Here are APCs in Voronezh region
The moves come as the Russian armed forces have announced a separate huge military exercise by its airborne troops
Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, yesterday said that even Kiev may not be safe from Putin’s troops, who were regrouping in ‘an offensive manner’.
Mr Parubiy claimed the forces massing included ‘over 80,000 personnel, up to 270 tanks, 180 armoured vehicles, 380 artillery systems, 18 multiple-launch missile systems, 140 combat aircraft, 90 combat helicopters and 19 warships and cutters’.
He added: ‘Critical is the situation not only in Crimea, but along the entire north-eastern frontier. In fact, Russian troop units are two or three hours of travel from Kiev.’
Former Putin adviser Andrey Illarionov predicted this week that in addition to Crimea, his ex-boss intends to annex other major cities in Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Kherson and Odessa.
Pictures of Russian armoured vehicles on the move in regions close to the Ukrainian border – said to have been taken on Monday – include motorised infantry vehicles and tanks. The military movements are also said to include Grad BM-21 multiple rocket launch vehicles.
The movements come amid Western concerns that the Kremlin is seeking to destabilise other regions in the south and east of Ukraine
Tanks at the streets of Rostov, which is around 105 miles from Mariupol, on the Azov Sea, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region
A driver travelling from the Donetsk region in Ukraine to the Rostov-on-Don region in Russia filmed one column, several miles long, heading towards the border.
Tanks have also been pictured being carried by rail in Belgorod, and are reported to be in a village 12 miles from the border.
The moves come as the Russian armed forces have announced a separate huge military exercise by its airborne troops. The three-day exercise ordered by Putin involves a vast ‘landing operation’ by 4,000 paratroopers.
An armed man in military uniform is seen outside the compound of an Ukrainian military base in the village of Perevalnoye, outside Simferopol, Crimea
Crimea’s secessionist authorities said that they have partially closed the region’s airspace to ‘keep out provocateurs’ in the run-up to the Sunday’s referendum about joining Russia
The alleged targets of ‘Putin’s Plan’ to invade south-eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers carry garbage outside the Ukrainian infantry base in Perevalne
A Russian soldier stands next to a machine-gun outside the Ukrainian infantry base in Perevalne
Last night a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The Russians need to pull back to their bases.’
Nato has conducted its own show of force to reassure countries in Eastern Europe.
The US and Poland began war games on Tuesday that are expected to involve at least 12 American F-16 fighter jets. A joint naval exercise of US, Bulgarian and Romanian naval forces in the Black Sea started on yesterday.
Events are building to a crunch point on Sunday when Crimea votes on whether to join Russia. If Putin recognises the province as Russian, sanctions will follow.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are expected to meet in London tomorrow, but British officials remain sceptical that Russia will make any concessions.
INJURED UKRAINIANS FLY TO GERMANY FOR TREATMENT
Two dozen Ukrainians who were injured in Kiev protests have been brought to Germany for medical treatment.
A German air force medical evacuation transport touched down Wednesday afternoon in Berlin with the patients, who were to be treated in hospitals in the capital, and Koblenz and Ulm.
The military says the patients were among several hundred injured in protests on Independence Square, which became the center and the symbol of the anti-government protests in Ukraine.
Lt. Col. Matthias Frank told The Associated Press about two-thirds of the patients were being treated for gunshot wounds. Two of the patients are still in need of intensive care treatment.
Frank says Ukrainian officials asked for help in treating the injured because they had run out of space in Ukrainian hospitals.
