Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov have both denied that Russia is involved in the Ukrainian crisis in any official military capacity, with Putin telling a forum of political scholars last month allegations of his country’s armed intervention in Ukraine were “groundless”.
After the capture of three groups of Russian servicemen, fighting for separatist rebels in Ukraine over the summer, Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zaharchenko told press there were in fact Russian servicemen assisting his rebels, however they were fighting as volunteers, not under orders from Moscow.
This has remained the party line when explaining Russian support in Ukraine’s rebel-held east.
According to the latest report by Ukraine’s Security Council, however, Russia has also increased violations of Ukrainian military airspace, crossing it without warning four times since Sunday’s elections in east Ukraine.
Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine earlier in the year was similarly prompted by a democratic vote in the region which Russia endorsed and Ukraine, the EU as well as US refused to accept as legitimate.