Ukraine’s President Warns Full-Scale Russian Invasion Possible

(Bloomberg)  Ukraine’s leader warned of a possible invasion by Russia, further fraying nerves that have been on edge since President Vladimir Putin last week accused his neighbor of engaging in “terror” tactics in the Crimean peninsula he annexed in 2014.

The situation in eastern Ukraine is deteriorating and the military may consider instituting a draft should hostilities worsen, President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday in the western city of Brody. Earlier in the day, the army said the worst spate of shelling in a year by Russian-backed separatists killed three soldiers.

“The probability of escalation of the conflict remains very significant,” Poroshenko said in a televised speech. “We don’t rule out a full-scale Russian invasion.”

Rising tensions in Ukraine are heightening concern that the nation’s two-year-old conflict, which has killed almost 10,000 people, is in danger of boiling over once again. While Ukraine rejects allegations it sent saboteurs to Crimea and caused the deaths of two Russian servicemen, Putin has vowed to respond with “very serious” measures. Efforts to bring peace to eastern Ukraine have stalled, with Putin saying planned talks at next month’s Group of 20 summit in China would be pointless after recent events in Crimea. (FullText)