Russia is out to 'eliminate' Ukraine, PM says

Ukraine's prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, believes that the Kremlin is set on destroying Ukraine, where Russia is waging "full-spectrum" war against it.

In an interview with the Times newspaper Yatsenyuk, who is currently in London on a diplomatic visit, said: "Putin's aim is to kill the Ukrainian project, just to eliminate Ukraine — I have no doubt."

"For Putin, Ukraine is the battlefield against the free world," he added

According to the newspaper Yatsenyuk holds that the recent period of relative peace in Eastern Ukraine will inevitably end soon. "From classified and unclassified sources and satellite images, you can easily see that Russia has stationed tens of thousands of soldiers and Russian-led guerrillas in Donetsk and Luhansk," the prime minister said.

"They are still supplying tanks, howitzers, even SA-11s and SA-22s [ground missiles]. Russia has created a massive military group in the east of Ukraine."

Earlier this week Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko issued a similar warning, saying that Ukrainian and Nato intelligence sources had both informed him that there are a record number of Russian troops deployed on the border between the two countries.

In May the Atlantic Council published a report compiled entirely based on "open sources" and non-classified information, purporting to demonstrate the presence of Russian military equipment and troops in Ukraine.

The report came out less than a week after Reuters reported eyewitness accounts of Russian troops amassing on the Ukrainian border.

Yatsenyuk spoke to the Times ahead of the one-year anniversary since the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 above rebel-held lands in Donetsk, an act Kiev blames on pro-Russian troops, while the rebels blame the Ukrainian military.

"We are absolutely sure that MH17 was shot down with the clear support of Russian-led terrorists and, allegedly, Russian regular military forces," Yatsenyuk said. His country is currently involved in a joint investigation with the Netherlands, Australia and other countries which lost nationals aboard the flight in solving how the flight was brought down.

"We will do everything to bring those bastards to justice, and those who were behind the scenes too," Yatsenyuk said.

An international tribunal into the downing is yet to be launched as Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that doing so would be "counter-productive" while his aide earlier this week refused to speculate as to whether Russia would veto such a move in the UN Security Council.

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