The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20220121181803/https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/russian-mercenaries-deploy-%20into-eastern-ukraine-sources-claim/ar-AAS5OBj?hss_channel=fbp-44821210086

Russian mercenaries have deployed to separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine in recent weeks to bolster defences against Ukrainian government forces as tensions between Moscow and the West rise, four sources have told Reuters new agency.

In recent weeks, Russia has moved tens of thousands of regular troops to staging posts closer to Ukraine and followed up by demanding urgent security guarantees from the West designed, Moscow says, to prevent Ukraine and other neighbouring countries being used as a base to attack it.

The West and Ukraine have for their part accused Russia of weighing a fresh attack on its southern neighbour as soon as next month, something Moscow denies.

Speaking earlier today, Vladimir Putin claimed eastern Ukraine is Russian and demanded NATO give 'security guarantees' amid fears he is poised to invade the country - but played down talk of war and said he welcomed peace talks with the US.

During his annual end-of-year press conference, Putin described Ukraine as 'historical territories' that fell outside of Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse.

( © Provided by Daily Mail (

He said Donbass, a Ukrainian region on Russia's border, 'never thought of itself as anything other than part of Russia' and that he was 'forced to do something about it in 2014'.

The remarks were some of Putin's strongest ever on the history of Ukraine and are a possible indication of just how far the Russian strongman may be willing to go.

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backed pro-Russian separatists who seized a swathe of the industrial Donbass region of eastern Ukraine that same year, and continue to fight Ukrainian government forces there.

Of four sources, three described their offers from mercenary recruiters to go to Donbass. They said the recruiters did not disclose who they represented. All four sources declined to be named, citing fears for their safety.

Two of the three sources said they had accepted; the third said he had refused.

'There is a full house. They are gathering everybody with combat experience,' said one of the two who accepted.

He said he had previously fought in Ukraine and Syria for groups of Russian security contractors whose operations have been closely aligned with Russia's strategic interests. He declined to identify the contractors.

The fighter said he was planning to join up with fellow mercenaries on the Russian side of the border with the separatist-held Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin says it has nothing to do with private Russian military contractors whose operatives it describes as volunteers with no connection to the state.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: 'It's the first we've heard of this and we don't know how reliable these assertions are.'

Peskov said there were no Russian regular forces or military advisers in eastern Ukraine and never had been, and that Moscow was not considering sending any. 

Kyiv disputes that and says regular Russian army forces are present. 

Alexander Ivanov, head of the Community of Officers For International Security, a non-governmental group representing Russian contractors in the Central African Republic, said he had 'not a single confirmation' that any Russian mercenary had been deployed to Ukraine.

( © Provided by Daily Mail (

Three of the sources said they were not aware of any plans for a new Russian attack on Ukraine or of preparations that would suggest one was coming.

One of the sources, a contractor who has taken part in Russian operations abroad and had already arrived in eastern Ukraine, said the deployment was for defensive purposes. The first mercenary said the same.

Another source said he was not directly involved in the deployment, but was in touch with people on the ground who were undergoing special training. He said the aim of the deployment was what he called sabotage activities to undermine stability in Ukraine.


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The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) proclaimed its independence from Ukraine in 2014 after separatist fighters took control of a slice of eastern Ukraine. Backed by Russia, its self-proclaimed status has not been recognised internationally.

Alexander Borodai, ex-prime minister of the DPR and head of the Union of Donbass Volunteers, said his organisation was not involved in the recruitment of any mercenaries for eastern Ukraine.

Members of his organisation have previously fought in Ukraine and Syria.

'If and when it's needed, we'll call people - but there has been no call for now,' said Borodai, who is also a lawmaker for Russia's ruling party, United Russia.

( © Provided by Daily Mail (

Separatist spokesperson Eduard Basurin said he knew nothing of any recent Russian deployments of security contractors to eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's military intelligence service declined to comment, while the state security service did not reply to a request for comment.   

In his address, Putin demanded NATO provide 'guarantees' that the organisation will not expand 'further eastward' and insisted the buildup on Ukraine's border was a defence force assembled for 'security' reasons, downplaying the prospect of an invasion.

Western governments has been warning for weeks that Putin appears to be readying tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces in a veiled threat of invasion lingering on Ukraine's eastern border.

The United States and Europe have warned Russia that it risks unprecedented sanctions should it launch a military attack on NATO ally Ukraine.

Both sides have sought to open strategic stability talks to resolve the crisis and the Russian strongman today described plans to start negotiations in Geneva in the new year as 'positive' - but added: 'The ball is in their court.' 

( © Provided by Daily Mail ( ( © Provided by Daily Mail (

What did Vladimir Putin say on each topic?

On possible conflict with Ukraine: 

'This is not our choice, we do not want this.'

'We have to think about ensuring our security prospects not just for today and next week but for the near future.'

'We just directly posed the question that there should be no further NATO movement to the east, the ball is in their court, they should answer us with something. In this regard, I would like to stress that on the whole we have seen a positive reaction so far, our American partners tell us that they are ready to start this discussion.' 

On NATO expansion:

'What is unclear here? Are we putting missiles next to the United States' borders? No, it is the United States that has come to us with their missiles, they are already on our doorstep.'

'The course of negotiations is not important to us, the result is important... 'Not one inch to the East,' they told us in the 90s. So what? They cheated, just brazenly tricked us! Five waves of NATO expansion and now already, please, the systems are appearing in Romania and Poland.'

On Donbass:

'The future of Donbass should be determined by the people who live in Donbass... It cannot be any other way. We see our role as mediators in creating the best conditions for determining the future of the people who live in this territory.' 

On Russia labelling some media as foreign agents:

'We do not forbid the work of these organisations. We want organisations engaging in Russia's domestic political activity to clearly and concisely declare the sources of foreign funding for their work.'   

Putin today described the recent buildup of troops on Ukraine's eastern border as part of an effort to defend Russia and ethnic Russians living in the next door nation. 

He said Russia had 'no choice' but to act to protect the minority portioned into Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union and claimed Kyiv had consigned Russians in the country to second-class citizen status.  

'They are pushing Russians and the Russian-speaking population from their historical territory,' he said. 

'The future of Donbass should be determined by the people who live in Donbass... It cannot be any other way. We see our role as mediators in creating the best conditions for determining the future of the people who live in this territory.' 

Putin accused the West of warmongering in Ukraine by creating an 'anti-Russia, constantly beefed up with modern weapons and brainwashing the population', adding that US us 'warning us not to get in the way, or there will sanctions'. 

'Now they tell us, war, war war. It seems they are preparing another operation [in Donbass] and are warning us not to get in the way, or they'll be sanctions,' he said. 

'This is not our choice, we do not want this. We have to think about ensuring our security prospects not just for today and next week but for the near future.' 

He said Russia cannot keep living in constant anticipation of looming security threats posed by possible deployment of Western weapons in Ukraine. 

'Are we putting missiles next to the United States' borders? No, it is the United States that has come to us with their missiles, they are already on our doorstep.' 

And argued that Western weapons could encourage hawkish forces in Ukraine to attempt to regain control over Russia-backed separatist regions by force and even try to reclaim Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.    

'The course of negotiations is not important to us, the result is important... 'Not one inch to the East,' they told us in the 90s. So what? They cheated, just brazenly tricked us! Five waves of NATO expansion and now already, please, the systems are appearing in Romania and Poland.'

Putin has denied having plans to launch an attack but has described a NATO expansion and weapons deployment in Ukraine as a 'red line.' 

Senior Kremlin and defence officials have grown increasingly insistent that the West and NATO are trampling Moscow's security red lines and encroaching dangerously close to Russia's borders. 

'The course of negotiations is not important to us, the result is important... 'Not one inch to the East,' they told us in the 90s,' he said. 

'So what? They cheated, just brazenly tricked us! Five waves of NATO expansion and now already, please, the systems are appearing in Romania and Poland.'      

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