Ukraine warns Russia that attack on country would cost it more

This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. Ukraine's foreign minister warned Russia on Thursday that an attack on his country would cause political, economic and human losses and would be too costly. Russia has been building up forces near its border with Ukraine, and Kyiv, the United States and NATO have expressed concerns about a possible Russian attack - a suggestion that the Kremlin has dismissed as false.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at the televised briefing that we are not trying to guess what is in Putin's head. We are working to give him a clear understanding that a new attack on Ukraine will be too costly, so it is better not to do it. He said that Kyiv's main goal was to restrain Russia from further aggressive actions. He added: To do this, Moscow must understand what political, economic and human losses it will incur in the event of a new stage of aggression. The head of Ukraine's military intelligence told the Military Times this weekend that Russia had more than 92,000 troops massed around Ukraine's borders and was preparing for an attack by the end of January or the beginning of February. Ukraine, which wants to join the NATO military alliance, received a large shipment of US military ammunition and Javelin missiles earlier this year, prompting criticism from Moscow. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian navy received two reconstructed former US Coast Guard patrol boats as part of a $2.5 billion 1.9 billion package of assistance to Ukraine, and Kuleba said Ukraine could receive one more of the vessels. In 2014 Ukraine's ties with Russia collapsed after Moscow supported separatists who rose up in eastern Ukraine and took control of territory that Kyiv wants back. Some 14,000 people have been killed in fighting since then, according to Kyiv. According to the accusations, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said Russia has not turned its back on 'Normandy format' talks with France, Germany and Ukraine about how to implement a peace deal over eastern Ukraine. The Russian foreign ministry published a number of diplomatic letters it exchanged with Germany and France in order to show that its diplomatic position on talks over eastern Ukraine had been misrepresented by Paris and Berlin earlier this month. Russia staged military drills in the Black Sea, south of Ukraine, and said it needed to sharpen the combat readiness of its conventional and nuclear forces because of the heightened NATO activity near its borders. Ukraine also held exercises of its own near the frontier with Belarus.