Russia dismisses NATO images of troops near Ukraine border

On Thursday, a high-ranking official at the Russian military's general staff said the NATO pictures were taken last August.
 
    "These photographs that were distributed by NATO depict units of Russian forces of the Southern Military District which conducted various exercises last summer, some of them near the border with Ukraine," the official added.
 
Earlier in the day, NATO released the satellite photos it said showed around 40,000 Russian troops, armed with tanks and military vehicles have been deployed in over 100 bases, mainly temporary, to the east of Ukraine.
 
"This is a force that is very capable, at high readiness, and, as we have illustrated through the imagery, is close to routes and lines of communication," British Brigadier Gary Deakin said at a briefing at NATO military headquarters in the Belgian city of Mons.
 
"It has the resources to be able to move quickly into Ukraine if it was ordered to do so," he added.
 
The Western military alliance said the military build-up represents a "real threat" to Kiev.
 
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that it would be a “historic mistake” for Russia to intervene further in Ukraine.
 
Tensions between the Western powers and Moscow heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16.
 
On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law documents that officially made the Black Sea peninsula part of the Russian territory despite condemnation from the West and the new Ukrainian government.
 
The move sparked angry reactions from the United States and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against a number of Russian officials and authorities in Crimea.