Ukraine's Defence Min blames media for sparking 'panic' as Russian invasion 'not imminent'

Ukraine does not see any imminent danger of a Russian invasion and foreign media outlets are to be blamed for inciting the tensions, said Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov. According to Sputnik, the Ukrainian Defence Minister said that Kyiv is “assessing the situation” at a distance of around 200 kilometres from the border and noted that Russia is constantly pulling up and then withdrawing its troops. Reznikov’s remarks came ahead of scheduled talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Paris on Wednesday along with their German and French counterparts in a bid to defuse the tensions. 

“We are assessing the situation at a distance of 200 km from the border. They [the Russians] are constantly pulling up and then withdrawing troops, conducting exercises. I can say with absolute certainty that as of today, the Russian armed forces have not created a strike group that could carry out an invasion,” Reznikov said, according to Sputnik.

“There are no grounds to think that an invasion will happen tomorrow from a military point of view,” he added.

Ukrainian Defence Minister blamed US, global outlets

Further Ukrainian Defence Minister placed the blame for whipping up tensions in the region on the US and other global media outlets. Reznikov, as per the report, referred to a news headline about Russian invasion plans as being “clickable”. According to him, “Panic and fear is the most clickable”. The Ukrainian official also expressed willingness to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu if such a possibility comes forward within the framework of negotiations in Brussels or in Munich including US and UK partners.

In a separate interview with Ukraine’s ICTV on Monday, the Ukrainian Defence Minister called on ordinary citizens of the country and the media not to pay heed to war panic. He reportedly said that there was no evidence to justify the war fears. He told the broadcaster, “I don’t rate such a scenario very highly. Our armed forces, our command and general staff have all the options worked out and know how to act. Right now, our intelligence and the intelligence of partner nations shows that no strike force has been created by the Russian Federation to indicate an offensive tomorrow. There is no such threat. Therefore, I ask you not to sow panic.”

(Image: AP)