Russia is building an army base near
its border with Ukraine, the latest in a chain of new military sites along what
the Kremlin sees as its frontline in a growing confrontation with NATO.
While there have been no clashes
between the former Cold War rivals, Russia is building up forces on its western
frontiers at a time when the NATO alliance is staging major military exercises
and increasing deployments on its eastern flank.
A Reuters reporter who visited the
Russian town of Klintsy, about 50 km (30 miles) from Ukraine, saw a makeshift
army camp, large numbers of newly-arrived servicemen and military vehicles.
Two soldiers in camouflage gear
who were manning a checkpoint in a forest turned the reporter away, saying they
were guarding a "special military site".
Last year, Reuters also reported
on construction of two other bases further to the south on Russia's border with
Ukraine.
The defense ministry has not
acknowledged the deployment of troops to Klintsy, which usually serves as a
stop for truck drivers traveling between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
However, a town council official
said Klintsy had been chosen as the site of a newly-formed division, and that
so far about 240 soldiers had arrived. "What's to hide? That they've come?
They've arrived," said council deputy chairman Oleg Kletny. "They're
going to be garrisoned here."
When completed, the base will be
the latest component in a build-up of forces along a line running from the
Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.
On the western side of the line,
NATO has been rotating troops and equipment in greater numbers to members
states that were part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.
The Western alliance, which says
it's responding to Russian military intervention in Ukraine, was this week
staging one of its biggest exercises in eastern Europe since the end of the
Cold War.
To the east, Russia is building up
its own forces, saying it needs to protect itself from NATO's eastward advance.
Each side says it is only
responding to steps taken by the other, but the build-up risks locking NATO and
Russia into a spiral of measure and counter-measure from which it will be
difficult to escape.
Russia and NATO member states share
borders around the Baltic Sea, while further south the two blocs are separated
by Ukraine and Belarus.
But since Ukraine's pro-Moscow
president was ousted in a popular uprising two years ago and replaced with a
Western-leaning administration, the perception in Moscow is that Ukraine has
become, de facto, a NATO satellite.
ANTI-TANK DEFENSES
Russia has pulled out of the
treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, a post-Cold War pact that limits the
deployment of troops in Europe, so it is free to move extra troops and hardware
to its western border.
On Monday Klintsy, normally a
sleepy town, was a hive of military activity. The Reuters reporter saw about a
dozen tents and the same number of military vehicles in a temporary camp in a
clearing in a forest where the troops will be billeted until their permanent
base is ready.
Military trucks drove through the
town, which lies in an area that is the closest point on Russian territory to
the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, 280 km away.
About a dozen servicemen were at a
gas station near the camp, buying food supplies. A road near the camp was
blocked off by antitank obstacles and road spikes.
Last week, Russia's Interfax news
agency quoted an unnamed source familiar with the deployment to Klintsy as
saying it "can be seen as a response to the growing activity of the North
Atlantic Alliance near Russia's borders".
The defense ministry did not reply
to questions from Reuters about the base and its purpose.
Council deputy chairman Kletny
said the troops, from a motorized infantry division, started arriving on May
30. They came from a base in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural mountains region about
2,000 km to the east of Klintsy.
He said they were deployed
following a decision earlier this year by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to
create three new divisions. The soldiers will be eventually garrisoned in the
grounds of a disused military base in Klintsy which they are renovating, said
Kletny.
"It's good that the military
will come; our demographic situation will improve, we'll get a bigger
population. If servicemen come her with their families, that will be good
too," he told Reuters.
A notice lodged with Klintsy town
council and seen by Reuters stated that approval is being sought for re-zoning
and construction works on two plots of land with a total area of 142 hectares
(351 acres), or about the size of 140 soccer pitches.
The plots of land would be used
"for the interests of the Russian armed forces", according to the
notice.
(Additional reporting by Yelena
Fabrichnaya in MOSCOW; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by David Stamp)
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