Ukraine should immediately organize defense of border with Russia - official
KYIV. May 28 (Interfax) - The head of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, Mykola Lytvyn, has called for defense lines to be built along the country's border with Russia.
"In this difficult time for Ukraine I want to state as follows with my full responsibility: that Ukraine should immediately organize the defense, not the security of the Ukrainian-Russian part of our national border, employing all government resources, especially on those parts in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions," he told press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Law enforcers and local authorities need to organize cooperation to defend the national border, Lytvyn said.
"I want to officially note that in the current reality this is extremely hard to do relying on the efforts of the border guard service alone. I stated this dozens of times at the highest level at various meetings. I was listened to, someone agreed, but border guards were and still remain one on one with bandits on the border," he said.
The chief of the border guard service therefore hopes that the newly-elected Ukrainian president will do everything in his power to make sure border guards receive help for efficient protection of the country's borders.
Lytvyn also said that Russian border guards are not responding to violation of the Ukrainian border on the Russian part.
"Regrettably, the Russian border agency continues to pretend that even today nothing to worry about is happening on our joint border. This undeclared war will still end one day, and I am not sure that those whom we had for years considered our partners in service could look us in the eyes," he said.
He mentioned several cases where groups of armed men on the Russian side tried to break into Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a day earlier the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Border Service denied the reports that vehicles carrying armed men had crossed the border with Ukraine.
