Ukraine President Calls Up Reservists for Service
KYIV (Dispatches) -- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a law allowing reservists to be called up for military service without announcing mobilization, his office said on Wednesday.
Approved by parliament late in March, the measure makes it possible to significantly boost the armed forces, amid escalation of tension with Russia in eastern Ukraine.
"This will make it possible to quickly equip the military units of all defense forces with reservists, thereby significantly increasing their combat effectiveness during military aggression,” the office said.
On Tuesday, Zelenskiy challenged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to meet him in the Donbass region for talks to end the conflict there and ease tension between the neighbors.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over increasing clashes in the Donbass, where Ukrainian troops have battled pro-Russian forces in a conflict that Ukraine says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.
Ukraine, its Western allies and NATO have accused Russia of a "provocative” build-up of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border and in Crimea. In turn, Russia has accused the United States and NATO of "provocative activity” in the Black Sea region.
Russia on Tuesday restricted civilian flights over the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula, amid rising tensions with Ukraine and its Western supporters.
"The area has been declared temporarily dangerous for aircraft flights,” Interfax news agency reported, citing an alert to pilots.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the flight restrictions an "absolutely normal world practice” in a press briefing on the same day.
Russia’s Defense Ministry previously said it had closed off navigation in parts of the Black Sea to foreign military and commercial ships from mid-April until the end of October for naval and aviation drills.
The flight restrictions come amid an escalation of tensions between Russia and the United States and NATO over Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kubela Dmytro has claimed that 120,000 Russian troops have been deployed to the country’s border within a week.
Dmytro said a regiment of Russian paratroopers had also been stationed in Crimea in what appeared to be a permanent deployment.
Russia says the troop build-up is a response to heightened NATO activity near its borders in Ukraine. Moscow has warned that the U.S. and NATO are turning Ukraine into a "powder keg” by increasing arms supplies to Kiev and inflaming tensions in the country’s volatile east, where government forces are fighting ethnic Russians.
Approved by parliament late in March, the measure makes it possible to significantly boost the armed forces, amid escalation of tension with Russia in eastern Ukraine.
"This will make it possible to quickly equip the military units of all defense forces with reservists, thereby significantly increasing their combat effectiveness during military aggression,” the office said.
On Tuesday, Zelenskiy challenged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to meet him in the Donbass region for talks to end the conflict there and ease tension between the neighbors.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over increasing clashes in the Donbass, where Ukrainian troops have battled pro-Russian forces in a conflict that Ukraine says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.
Ukraine, its Western allies and NATO have accused Russia of a "provocative” build-up of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border and in Crimea. In turn, Russia has accused the United States and NATO of "provocative activity” in the Black Sea region.
Russia on Tuesday restricted civilian flights over the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula, amid rising tensions with Ukraine and its Western supporters.
"The area has been declared temporarily dangerous for aircraft flights,” Interfax news agency reported, citing an alert to pilots.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the flight restrictions an "absolutely normal world practice” in a press briefing on the same day.
Russia’s Defense Ministry previously said it had closed off navigation in parts of the Black Sea to foreign military and commercial ships from mid-April until the end of October for naval and aviation drills.
The flight restrictions come amid an escalation of tensions between Russia and the United States and NATO over Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kubela Dmytro has claimed that 120,000 Russian troops have been deployed to the country’s border within a week.
Dmytro said a regiment of Russian paratroopers had also been stationed in Crimea in what appeared to be a permanent deployment.
Russia says the troop build-up is a response to heightened NATO activity near its borders in Ukraine. Moscow has warned that the U.S. and NATO are turning Ukraine into a "powder keg” by increasing arms supplies to Kiev and inflaming tensions in the country’s volatile east, where government forces are fighting ethnic Russians.