The BBC reports that the deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak, said that has warned that if Ukraine launches a full-blown assault on separatists, Moscow could intervene to “defend” Russian citizens.

Kozak said, “Everything depends on the scale of the conflagration.” He added, “an escalation could mark the “beginning of the end” for Ukraine, and “not a shot in the leg, but in the face”. Russia has reportedly deployed thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine. Ukrainian army commander, General Ruslan Khomchak, however, said “we see the build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine’s state border. However, this does not mean that our country is being encircled. The situation is under control.”

Kozak compared the situation of the Russian separatists in the Ukraine to Srebrenica, where 8,000 Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. He said, “If, as our president says, there is a Srebrenica there, we shall probably have to come to their defense.”

The Ukrainian military further reported that one of its soldiers was killed on Thursday by shooting from the separatists, who have been using, according to the BBC, machine-guns, grenades, and mortars. Ukrainian forces fired back. The ‘rebels’ also said one of their fighters was killed after Ukrainian troops fired mortars at a village.

According to the BBC, a ceasefire has been violated daily in the Donbas region for the last few months by sporadic clashes between Ukrainian troops and the ‘rebels’, resulting in the death of 25 Ukrainian troops this year, and 50 in 2020.

Republic World, meanwhile, reports that a Russian military analyst, Pavel Felgenhauer, voiced concerns of a war erupting in European war as footage of Russia’s recent military build-up circulated. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on Nato and key member states to fast track his country’s membership following the growing buildup of Russian forces on the country’s borders.

Umm Muhammed Umar