Russia Ready to Inform West of Drills near Ukrainian Border

MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is prepared to inform the West of troop deployment near the border with Ukraine, but the issue of the time and place of holding military drills within Russian territory is a domestic entitlement, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.

“Of course we give that type of information, and I’m sure that would come from the current commander-in-chief. But I again emphasize that this is our domestic entitlement of when and where to hold drills,” Medvedev said during an interview with Bloomberg.

In response to the developing situation in Ukraine’s southeast, where a special operation targeted the country’s own citizens in late April, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the beginning of military drills of units from the Southern and Western military districts near the borders with Ukraine.

NATO earlier accused Russia of deploying approximately 35,000-40,000 troops in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border in preparation for a military intervention in Ukraine, despite Russia’s continued claims there was nothing unusual about its military drills.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow has nothing to hide about the military exercises, which were open to international inspections that proved them non-threatening.

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