Stefanchuk: we regard increase Russian Armed Forces' contingent along Ukraine's border as pressure

KYIV. Dec 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine considers the increase in the contingent of the Russian Armed Forces along its state border and the aggressive statements of the representatives of the Russian leadership as pressure to change the strategic foreign policy of Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk agreements in the Russian version, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk has said.

"Ukraine is closely monitoring the increase in the groupings of the Russian Armed Forces in the Ukrainian direction […]. The listed actions are accompanied by aggressive statements by representatives of the Russian leadership, whipping up ultranationalist, chauvinistic, as well as anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western hysteria in the Russian media. We perceive this […] as pressure on Ukraine to destabilize situation and coercion of our state to change the strategic foreign policy of Ukraine, to implement the Russian interpretation of the Minsk agreements, as well as to undermine the foundations of Ukraine’s independence and its subordination to the neo-imperialist, revisionist plans of Moscow. And we will not allow this," Stefanchuk said at the 11 session of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Seimas of Lithuania and the Senate of Poland in Warsaw on Monday.

He also said "the buildup of Russian troops at a certain distance from the state border with Ukraine will continue and reach its peak at the end of January 2022."

"We do not exclude a new stage of the crisis as a result of a possible military aggression this winter," the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament said.

According to Stefanchuk, Russia has also stepped up disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks against Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, and countering these threats is one of the components of cooperation within the Lublin Triangle roadmap.